Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Difficult Women

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox: A Novel by Maggie O’Farrell

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Maggie O’Farrell is one of my favorite contemporary writers. She has a great talent for historical fiction (read Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait), and she excels at telling stories of women who find themselves in untenable positions. In The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Esme is a woman who, like Agnes in Hamnet and Lucrezia in The Marriage Portrait, is unusual in ways that make her seem dangerous to those around her. She does not conform to conventional traditional female roles and, as we know […]

If you are needing some unsettling horror-type reading, here you go

The Night Guest: A Novel by Hildur Knutsdottir

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If you’re looking for a book to set you on edge for spooky season, this is it. This short novel from Icelandic author Hildur Knutsdottir is a very quick read full of foreboding and tension. It’s also a commentary on women’s health and mental health and the stigma/lack of attention attached to both.  The novel is narrated by the main character, a woman who I imagine to be in her 30s or so. Odunn (not sure if this is a correct spelling, since it seems […]

Don’t fear the reaper

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer: A SCYTHE Mystery Book 1 by Maxie Dara

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This is a decent murder mystery featuring “grim reapers” and dead souls. It’s funny at times and includes some colorful support characters who clearly will play a big role in future novels in the series. I found it through a “Book Riot” recommendation. Book Riot is one of those book accounts on FB that pops up in my feed regularly and sometimes makes pretty good recommendations. A Grim Reaper’s Guide was good; not “wow, I can’t wait to read the rest of this series” good, […]

I need more stars

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

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Trigger Warning for abuse, violence, depression, suicidal thoughts, drug abuse, addiction I’ve had a copy of this book for years, knowing from its blurb and from what I’ve read about it that I would probably love it, but at 960 pages, it’s a brick and a bit intimidating to start. I finally decided to tackle it, and I finished it in less than a week. I would have finished within days if not for the pesky need for sleep and doing laundry and the like. […]

“ He left you the fortune, Avery, and all he left us is you.”

The Inheritance Games: A Novel by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Cbr16bingo Games, Bingo Blackout This book is the start of a YA series that promises to be fun to follow. The main characters are mostly teens, mostly very wealthy, and all involved in a strange and dangerous game that seems to have been contrived by Tobias Hawthorne. Hawthorne was a billionaire who was fond of games and inventions. He loved puzzles and riddles, and constantly challenged his grandsons to match wits with him. Tobias has died, and his two daughters and four grandsons expect to […]

The realness of the story is what makes it so terrifying

Tell Me What I Am: A Novel by Una Mannion

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Cbr16bingo Golden, +2 bingos This novel won the Crime Writer Association’s 2024 Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel of the year. It is a riveting, disturbing and heartbreaking story that I didn’t want to put down. At the center of it is the disappearance of Deena Garvey and its impact on her daughter Ruby and sister Nessa. Una Mannion takes us back to the events leading up to Deena’s disappearance and then forward some 15 years later where the reverberations of this traumatic event […]



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