Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A book so good I may soon need an intervention if I’m ever to stop re-reading it

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

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An absolutely fantastic follow up to Every Heart A Doorway, Down Among The Sticks and Bones gives us the back story to two of the most interesting characters from its predecessor, showing us how Jack and Jill found themselves at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children in an outing that is so brilliant I found myself devouring it within hours before turning around and reading it all over again. Jack and Jill weren’t always who we now know them to be. Born Jacqueline and Jillian […]

If you’re patient it’s not a bad read.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

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Dracula as a phenomenon has pretty much taken on a life of its own to the point where I thought I knew all about it.I mean, Dracula is Dracula right?! Turns out I don’t! Dracula isn’t at all what I expected. It is told through a collection of diary entries, letters, notes and telegrams following various people through the novel. The story opens with Jonathan Harker traveling from London to the estate of Dracula in Transylvania. It’s all very spooky and mysterious, Dracula doesn’t eat, […]

That Was Long

The Stand (Complete and Uncut) by Stephen King

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When I was as kid, like maybe 12 or 13, every Sunday after church, my family would go the the mall where we had a store selling outdoor equipment.  Across our store was a used bookstore.  I would spend hours reading while my parents did errands or whatever.  At the end of the day, they let me choose one book that I could buy.  I was a very fast reader and devoured books so for practicality’s sake (to make the book last longer), I always […]

The Haunting of Rookward House is my new favorite Darcy Coates novel

The Haunting of Rookward House by Darcy Coates

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The Haunting of Rookward House is a creepy horror novel and it’s the first book in a while to actually scare me. Main character Guy is down on luck. He’s living with his mom and unable to find a job. While helping Mom clean out the attic, he discovers the deed to Rookward House, which Mom doesn’t really remember inheriting. Mom seems a bit ditsy. Guy immediately decides that selling Rookward House is the answer to their problems as it will give them enough money […]

“Men are everywhere. If I ran away from here, there would be more men all over the world.”

Dead Girls by Abigail Tarttelin

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Wow. I tell you what, wow. That’s a reference to the 1997 animated film Anastasia that I am pulling out now as a special occasion, because this book deserves it. I mean, wow. So before I get to why I’m wowing all over this review, the plot: It’s spring 1999 in a small English countryside village. Eleven year-old Thera and Billie have been best friends (“best, true, forever friends”) since before they were even born. Thera and Billy are imaginative, playful, and clever, and right […]

If you like Lovecraftian horror, you might like this better than I did.

Maplecroft (The Borden Dispatches, #1) by Cherie Priest

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Before you read too much of my blather, the gist of this review will be that this book was Not For Me. Those two stars mean, “not to my tastes or preferences,” not “this book is very flawed and here’s why.” The review might still be of interest for you for the purposes of finding out if the book might be For You. Maplecroft is an epistolary novel that posits the what if of: What if Lizzie Borden famously murdered her parents for a good […]



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