Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

They say thriller; I say crap

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

by 3 Comments

I didn’t appreciate how much this novel truly annoyed me until I was bemoaning to a friend how it spent some 25 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. Thinking I didn’t like it because it is basically fluff (which it is), she said, “Well, look how long Da Vinci Code was on the bestseller list,” and I shot back, “Da Vinci Code was a masterpiece next to this book!” And I stand by that. I may have issues with The Da Vinci Code, but […]

Using Interpersonal Drama to Dial Up the Heat in this Mystery

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

by 1 Comment

A big, lavish wedding on a remote island off the Irish coast, featuring an intertwining ensemble cast of characters who may or may not be involved in a murder? Well, that actually all sounds exactly like the kind of thing that my sister would love! And you know what, I quite enjoyed this novel as well. It turned up the drama and uncomfortable situations where you just know something could happen at any turn, and it kept me interested the whole way through. The Guest […]

The future, the present and the past are all scary places

The name of the rose by Umberto Eco

The searcher by Tana French

The push by Ashley Audrain

The hunting party by Lucy Foley

Snow crash by Neal Stephenson

Ready player two by Ernest Cline

Tender is the flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

by 2 Comments

My final review dump and then I’ll be all caught up! Woohoo! These books are about the past, the present and the future. The name of the rose by Umberto Eco Eco is my dad’s favourite author. He’s read all of his books, some of them probably several times. I, on the other hand, had never read anything by Eco before. I had seen bits of the film years ago that had intrigued me enough to want to read the book but for some reason […]

Bad Moon Rising

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

by Leave a Comment

The ultimate destination wedding.  The most gorgeous and trendy couple.  And, oh right, murder. The couple is Jules Keegen, sleek and gorgeous publisher of the online magazine, The Download, and Will Slater, star of the hit live-action show, Survive the Night.  On the bride’s side, there is her half-sister, Olivia, frail mentally and physically, and estranged from her sister.  On the groom’s side, there is a squad of his posh school classmates, rowdy and feral, very much a set of Lord of Flies chaps.  And […]

Is It Bad If You Figure Out The Mystery?

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

by 3 Comments

For a large portion of These Pandemic Times, I’ve been in a phase where all I can read are mystery stories and Maeve Binchy. This state of mind is reminiscent of when I was pregnant with my first child and read only Agatha Christie and the occasional Western. There was already a lot going on for my brain to deal with, and I needed something with pretty clear good guys and bad guys. I needed a fun puzzle that wasn’t going to stress me out, […]

The Guest List….uh…sure?

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

by 3 Comments

This was recommended to me as a book I would love and would be unable to put down. It mostly made me annoyed. This book burns slow which is frustrating because a “can’t put down page turner” should definitely move with more haste in story telling. It is also hard to follow what is happening at times because the point of view shifts pretty rapidly and not in a way that suggests the intricacies of the storylines coming together. The book opens on a central […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo