Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

April 2024 Leftovers

X = : Poems by Stephen Berg

Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley

A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh

The Hurricane Blonde by Halley Sutton

Vineland by Thomas Pynchon

L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais

Watch It Burn by Kristen Bird

Sleep With Strangers by Dolores Hitchens

The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars, and Marilyn by Josh Young

One of Us Is Wrong by Sam Holt

The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker

The Second Murderer by Denise Mina

Blackmailer by George Axelrod

The Darkest Glare: A Story of Murder, Blackmail, and Real Estate Greed in 1979 Los Angeles by Chip Jacobs

Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith

by Leave a Comment

Happy April, y’all! X = : Poems**** This is why library book bingos are necessary. I only checked this one out because I needed to read a book of poems and I wanted to check the nettlesome “X” off the A-Z reading list. A convoluted reason to begin with and this wasn’t even the book I thought I was getting! I thought I’d get a different X by a different author. I’m glad I got this one. Some of these really spoke to me, including […]

An Intense, Important Middle Grade

Lion of the Sky by Ritu Hemnani

by Leave a Comment

I was immediately intrigued by the cover of Lion of the Sky with the two boys flying kites, and when I read the synopsis I knew I wanted to read it. For some reason I’ve been coming across more books, and middle grade ones at that, talking about the Indian Partition and the experiences of those who survived. This was my first story which focused on a Hindu family migrating from Pakistan, and the similarities and differences of the experiences are striking, and utterly heartbreaking. […]

“Was there no hope? the tigress seemed to be asking her. Will I always remain here? Will I never return home?”

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

by 2 Comments

When Lucrezia, the third daughter of the Duke of Florence, is wed to Alfonso d’Este, she’s not sure what to expect – but whatever it was, it was certainly not that he was going to want her dead before they’d been married a year. I haven’t read Maggie O’Farrell’s work before, but she’s been on my radar after the success of Hamnet, and so when I saw The Marriage Portrait offered as a ‘lucky day’ loan from my library, I snapped it up. Hurrah for […]

A fascinating historical woman I knew nothing about before and now want to tell everyone about her.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray

by Leave a Comment

I forget how I found out about The Personal Librarian but as I read about it, knew it was perfect for my book club.  Historical fiction – Check, Talented woman – Check, About a library and books – Check.  We haven’t met up yet so I don’t know the other’s reactions but I found it a fascinating read that delivered on the promises of the book blurbs.  Author, Pam Jenoff, has this to say, “An extraordinary tale that is both brilliant historical fiction and an important […]

The LONG Long Goodbye

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

by Leave a Comment

I picked this up thanks in large part to Megan Abbott’s review. It’s not her fault, though, that I didn’t like it. For Goodreads, Abbott talked about the book’s similarities to Robert Altman’s movie The Long Goodbye, mostly in terms of aesthetics, a forgotten Los Angeles, as well as the narrator’s anxiety. The Long Goodbye is one of my all time favorite movies, Chandler but better. So I had to grab this. And yeah, she is right that it gets the aesthetics well. I deeply felt […]

Old Sins Cast Long Shadows

Shadows of Berlin by David R. Gillham

by Leave a Comment

A decade after World War 2, Rachel Perlman may have moved to New York City and gotten married, but she is still haunted by her experiences as a Jewish girl hiding in plain sight in Berlin and the death of her mother. Despite what the blurb led me to expect, this book is not a World War 2 novel – at least, not exactly. Though Rachel’s experiences in Berlin hang over the entirety of the story, we spend most our time with her grappling with […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo