Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“So this is merely romance,” she frowned disapprovingly. “I was hoping for an epic adventure, or a gothic mystery at the very least.” Ned laughed. “Darling, don’t worry, the story has just begun.”

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

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Official book description, because I finished this book two months ago, and the plot is rather convoluted: Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She’s also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it’s a pleasant existence. Until the men show up. Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is […]

Life imitates art, which is inspired by quiet village life

Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson

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15-word review: Anonymous spinster Barbara Buncle writes a book to pay the bills, her entire village rages. This witty novel, originally published in 1934, features rather plain and unassuming village spinster Barbara Buncle falling on hard times and writing a novel to make enough money to be able to pay her bills. She briefly considered keeping chickens but doesn’t like birds. As Miss Buncle hasn’t really been anywhere or experienced much outside village life, she uses her own neighbours and the village of Copperfield where […]

Strangers on a Train with no murder involved!

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

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It took almost a full six months, but I think I have what might become my favorite book of 2022. Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley was a wonderful surprise. I grabbed this book from a library display (to complete a summer bingo card entry “read a book from a library display”).  I had enjoyed Pooley’s previous book, The Authenticity Project, so I decided to take a chance on her latest. Iona Iverson was somebody back in her day.  She and her girlfriend […]

A wonderful Regency romp where nearly everyone is queer

Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall

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4.5 stars Official book description: Valentine Layton, the Duke of Malvern, has twin problems: literally. It was always his father’s hope that Valentine would marry Miss Arabella Tarleton. But, unfortunately, too many novels at an impressionable age have caused her to grow up…romantic. So romantic that a marriage of convenience will not do and after Valentine’s proposal she flees into the night determined never to set eyes on him again. Arabella’s twin brother, Mr. Bonaventure “Bonny” Tarleton, has also grown up…romantic. And fully expects Valentine […]

A book that actually made me start exercising again, despite (or possibly because of) the name

Jeg hater å trene (I hate to exercise) by Brita Zackari

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Brita Zackari is a Swedish ex-model, TV presenter, and the writer of this book – about how she absolutely and utterly hates exercising, how she first started dieting before she was ten, and how diets are the absolute worst thing you can do to your body, but the patriarchy and modern society pretty much brainwash us into thinking we need to be thinner and fitter and that diets are a way to achieve that. As she says in the book, female bodies very rarely get […]

I was today years old when I discovered this book and I are pretty much the same age

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

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3.5 stars CBR13 Bingo: Machinery (space ships, the guide, Marvin – a lot of examples) Arthur Dent wakes up one morning to discover his house is about to be bulldozed. He’s very upset about it and goes to lie down in front of one of the bulldozers, so it can’t knock down his house, but is interrupted by his friend Ford Prefect, who has some very important things to tell him, and very little time left to do so. It turns out Ford Prefect is […]



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