Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

FaeFae

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

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Read as part of CBR17 bingo: diaspora. The story follows a woman born-and-raised in Georgia who goes to Ireland for the duration of the book to investigate her sister’s death. It also has a plot of an alien race who is living on earth in diaspora.  I’ve been watching a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I found this one on a subreddit recommending books like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Make no mistake, the author has definitely seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer more than once. She may even owe […]

Hello Darkness My Old Friend

The Lock-Up by John Banville

Alles Wat er Was by Hanna Bervoets

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Two relatively short, easy reads this week, neither of them terribly cheerful! The Lock-Up (John Banville) *** 1950s Dublin. A young woman is discovered in a rented garage, sitting in her car with the windows closed and a hose connecting the exhaust to the interior. The police are quick to call it suicide, though no note is found. But pathologist Quirke, still in mourning over the loss of his beloved wife, soon discovers that the young woman was probably sedated before being placed inside the […]

Wych Way Out

The Wych Elm by Tana French

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Google cannot tell me whether this book is called The Wych Elm or The Witch Elm, but you get the point.  Twentysomething Toby works as a PR-operative for an art gallery somewhere in Dublin. After a night out with friends his apartment is burglarised; Toby catches them in the act and is clobbered on the head with a heavy object. When he wakes up in hospital he is no longer the same. He has a limp, his face droops and he can no longer remember […]

Another cookbook that may or may not be worth my time

Cornucopia The Green Cookbook by Tony Keogh, Aoife Carrigy, et al.

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I am still working my way through that stack of lost and found Christmas gift cookbooks; here’s the next one: Cornucopia: The Green Cookbook. I have to admit that I didn’t have high hopes for this one because of all the restaurant cookbooks I’ve seen, I’ve only really liked one well enough to actually use it for more than one or two recipes. The restaurant in this case is a vegetarian joint in Dublin Ireland called Cornucopia that’s been around since the mid 80s. As […]

not a series, but out of order none the less

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

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My complaint against Conversations with Friends is wholly not the fault of the novel, the writer, or the characters within. My complaint is petty. I am being spoiled in lamenting that Conversations with Friends is not another Normal People. I know. It’s a wild assumption, I should know better, and the like- but Normal People was perfect. Conversations with Friends is a stepping stone on the path of Sally Rooney, and I wish that I had heeded a friend’s recommendation and read this one first! That being said, Conversations with Friends also worms a way into […]

Teenage Kinks

The Secret Place by Tana French

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Teenagers are weird. I like them. I teach high school; it’s not a job where you’ll last long if you don’t like the target demographic. But they are weird. Half their brains are all grown up and the other half is stuck in childhood. Not always the right parts. They are fiercely loyal, especially to their friends, and they’re at the point where they are developing their own world. Parents not allowed. Except when they get stuck, of course. If you’re lucky. Detective Stephen Moran […]



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