Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Sometimes a life is so entirely disrupted, on such a large and ungraspable scale, all one can do is face the ruined day.”

The Christie Affair by Nina De Gramont

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This is much more like what I wanted from 2021’s The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, a book which also speculates on what happened to Agatha Christie when she went missing for eleven days in 1926. At the same time, I could not have predicted what avenues this story would take. So really, it’s more like this gave me the feelings I was looking for, even if not in the way I expected. The other book gave me a plot more like I expected but was lacking […]

wtf was this book?? anyone else?

The Curator by Owen King

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This book has one of the lowest average ratings on Goodreads I’ve ever seen*; it’s currently sitting at a 3.01, where anything under 3.5 is considered low, and anything under 3.25 is pretty dire. You see a rating like that and your first instinct is, “Whoa, what’s going on here??” And honestly, I understand it. I read this book back in March (it is now late June) and I’m still not sure if I even liked it. It is an extremely weird reading experience with […]

The Secret to Getting Rich

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Merriweather Post by Allison Pataki

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Hillwood, Marjorie Merriweather Post’s home in Washington, DC, that is now a museum and gardens, is one of the museums in DC that not very many people know about. I happen to know about it because I live nearby and it is one of my mother’s favorite places. Marjorie liked beautiful, expensive things, and Hillwood is a museum that reflects that. She was a person that had a great deal of influence over politicians and society ladies, but history has mostly forgotten her. Except as […]

Vampires as in Monsters and Vampires as in Monsters-But-Anglos

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas*

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*Note: My alt key and other shortcuts for the “enye” tilde over the “n” of the author’s name is not functioning but her name is Isabel Canas pronounced “Can-yas”. This is the first time I’ve been a person to review a book for the first time on Canonball Read break out the champagne. Vampires of El Norte is an upcoming title from Isabel Canas* and it looks like this is her lane. It’s a great lane. Historical fiction with horror elements – if not fully […]

Do yell fire in a crowded theatre

The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland

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I really enjoyed Rachel Beanland’s Florence Adler Swims Forever, so I was very excited for her new book The House is on Fire. I was not disappointed and will continue to read this very talented author. The House is on Fire is a historical fiction set in 1811 Richmond, Virginia, based on the true story of a tragic theater fire. I can’t think of another historical fiction set in this time. The nation is young, the Revolutionary War is not too far behind us and […]

Oh, the foreboding!

The Marriage Portrait: A Novel by Maggie O’Farrell

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Maggie O’Farrell’s last two novels have been works of historical fiction that deal with heavy topics. In Hamnet, it was the death of William Shakespeare’s young son from the plague, and in The Marriage Portrait it is the death of the 15-year-old Duchess of Ferrara, Lucrezia de’Medici, thought to have been murdered by her own husband. O’Farrell is a master of foreboding, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat while waiting for the horrid event to occur. And yet, despite the fact that […]



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