Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Shelfie: These Toxic Things

These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall

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I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!  I’m using this book as my “Shelfie” – so here’s the picture of the ebook in my Kindle account. (Not nearly as exciting as a physical copy…)  For anyone who has read any of my reviews, it’s probably apparent that I love mystery novels. However, I haven’t read many where the main character is a young black woman who is determined to solve a mystery. Generally, in fact, it’s white women. Middle to upper middle class white women. Which is a […]

“There is a pay phone by a truck stop near the town of Leonard, Arizona. Sometimes at night it starts to ring.”

Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel

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I was first drawn into Emily St. John Mandel’s world back in 2015, when Station Eleven caught my eye after popping up in a few “best of” lists.  It became an immediate favorite, and I know that love is shared here within our CBR community! I’ve read it twice since first picking it up, most recently in March, right as the world started to dip further and further into pandemic horror. I wrote in a previous review that I would not have picked up The Glass Hotel […]

“I’m no expert, but I remember reading somewhere, every time you retrieve a memory, that act of retrieval, it corrupts the memory a little bit. Maybe changes it a little.”

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

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This book is highly readable. While it may appear that I am damning with faint praise, that is not my intention. This book is readable because, despite being filled with topics and characters that do not automatically appeal to me, I was interested and invested from page one. Had this book not been written by Emily St. John Mandel I probably would have glanced at the dust jacket and gone on my merry way, but since it was written by her I knew that I […]

Kiss and Don’t Tell

Come Again by Nate Powell

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I hate to admit this, but I am not sure what I read when it comes to Come Again by Nate Powell. On the surface it is obvious: a free love, of the earth community lives together off by themselves. They only go to town for market days and a few supplies they cannot make or grow themselves. They sell their wares (some even are legal) and even dance to bands playing. The community consists of friends old and new because of the community (some […]

“Rooting around in the presidential innards”

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

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Listening to Assassination Vacation is like taking a road trip with your strangest friend. Well, Sarah Vowell is on a road trip- and is unabashedly strange- but having her narrate the journey to you is a little cozy, a little crazy, a little creepy- and a LOT of fun. Her morbid fascination with presidential assassins (both would-be and verified) and the zeal for putting friends and relatives into uncomfortable situations is a hoot, and the audio experience feels like gossiping with your own partner-in-crime. She […]

He gathered up his spoils and took them to the checkout.

Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold

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In which Miles Vorkosigan goes grocery shopping. It’s a pretty good general go to to take your expert pilot/ warrior/ rogue….etc and make them do something regular. Think: Nebula playing paper football. There’s a funny scene in this one where Miles is back on Barryar, living on his own for the first time, and having to buy his own groceries. He’s also thinking about what are his non-military, non-spy, non-smuggler career options are. He considers how much money he could make selling eggs — recalling […]



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