Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Forgive Us Our Happiness

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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If someone were to ask me which book by Dostoevsky would be the best to start with, the most obvious answer would definitely be Crime and Punishment, and indeed it is the first book by him that I myself read as a teenager. It is also the one that hooked me, and that would end up making me read almost all of his works in the following years. Still, Dostoevsky really wrote five great novels, and each one can be recommended as a perfect starting […]

She really is smarter than everyone else

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

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I have recommended A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas to nearly everyone it feels like. It seems very appropriate to review it for the Gateway CBR12 bingo square. I started reading it last year for Cannon Book Club, but never went back to finish. So I went in fresh with the audiobook to jumpstart my brain and finally finish my paperback copy. Charlotte Holmes is a clever woman who is smarter than almost everyone she meets. All she wants is independence to do […]

cbr12bingo – Gateway (plus two “bingos” and a Double Cannonball!)

Coyote Doggirl by Lisa Hanawalt

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Are you familiar with Lisa Hanawalt? If not, how is that even possible? She is a brilliant cartoonist, show-runner, writer, illustrator, podcast host- the list goes on forever and ever. She designed the entire look of Bojack Horseman, has created comics for Lucky Peach (RIP) and Drawn and Quarterly, and is the creator and show-runner of Tuca and Bertie. You may not be entirely familiar with her work, but you must have seen her brightly colored and lovingly created plant and animal people at least in passing- she is everywhere! […]

A gateway in more ways than one (CBR12Bingo: Gateway)

Be Different by John Elder Robison

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I’m a big believer in an introduction not being anyone’s best work necessarily, you want to hook a reader but not give all of the wonder of future works away. My favorite Robison book is either Look Me In The Eye, his debut; or possibly Switched On, but this is a solid start for anyone interested in either book. Interestingly, Look Me In The Eye was more of a memoir with a mystery – Robison details his experience with what was then called Asperger’s (a […]

The Girl on the Boat

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

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I have been seeing this one all over the place but hadn’t really been interested as it seemed like a The Girl on the Train knockoff.  Although it has shades of Girl on the Train, I was pleasantly surprised. We meet our heroine, Lauren ‘Lo’ Blacklock, as she is being burgled in her London flat- she comes face to face with the thief who then locks her in her bedroom while he completes his crime and escapes.  Although she is thankful to have not been […]

This Was Exactly My Kind of Weird.

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

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  My heart goes out to Seanan McGuire this year, really it does. As I mentioned in a previous post, this year’s Best Novel nominees for the Hugo Awards was really strong, and if it were any other year, I think Middlegame would have taken the crown. It’s one of my favourite books that I’ve ever read from Seanan McGuire – nearly beating out some of her best Toby Daye novels too. It did score a Locus award though, so I hope that’s some consolidation, […]



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