Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Come for the Murder, Stay for the Food

Murder and Mamon by Mia P. Manansala

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You do have to wonder how many murders have to happen in your small town before you consider that it might be time to move away. But for Lila Macapagal, solving a murder is just a part of her life now, just like the Brew-Ha Café that she runs with her two closest friends, and her aunties April, Mae, and June, also known as the Calendar Crew. In this, the fourth installment of Mia P. Manansala’s cozy murder mystery series, the Calendar Crew come to […]

A mystery complete with recipes!

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

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Lila Macapagal has had to move back to her hometown and work at her Aunt’s restaurant. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she has to serve food to her douchebag ex-boyfriend, who thinks of himself as a food critic. He writes terrible reviews of the family restaurant, yet insists on constantly eating there. One day, after Lila serves him some special desserts she made, he drops dead. The police immediately make Lila their only suspect. To make matters worse, the ex’s stepfather is the restaurant’s […]

CBR15 Bingo: Edibles

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

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CBR15 Bingo: Edibles (this book features both a lot of food and quite a few drugs) Lila Macapagal used to live in Chicago and dreamed of opening her own restaurant, but both her business and relationship failed miserably. She’s back in her hometown, helping to run her tita (aunt) Rosie run the family restaurant, where they serve Philipino food. Unfortunately, Lila’s ex-boyfriend is a food critic and seems determined to come back, again and again, to sample the food and write scathing things about the […]

Sausage Dogs and Murder

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

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CBR Bingo, Edibles Arsenic and Adobo was a Cannonball book review choice, but I couldn’t get it from the library until after the discussion passed. Still, I do look a cozy mystery and I especially like a cozy mystery with recipes, I usually cook something from the recipes in the back of the book. (Full disclosure, I do not cook it, I show my husband the recipe and he makes it for me.) So I read this and enjoyed it, it was cute, and the […]

Murder most delicious

Blackmail and Bibingka by Mia P. Manansala

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CBR Bingo Square: Edibles I love cooking, and I love murder mysteries, so I’m always happy when those two things coincide. Pushing Daisies had all that pie, Recipes for Love and Murder is very fun, etc etc. So I’ve also enjoyed Mia P. Manansala’s series focusing on Lila Macapagal and her Filipino family, particularly as audiobooks. Blackmail and Bibingka is the third in the series, and Lila, the baker-slash-mystery-solver, seems to finally have her life in order: the coffeeshop she opened with her best friend is doing great, […]

Back then we prayed to the gods and went on killing sprees. Now we have Zoloft.

Fit for the Gods: Greek Mythology Reimagined by Jenn Northington and S. Zainab Williams

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Zoraida Cordova knows what’s what. Her story, “The Gorgon Confessionals,” opens Fit for the Gods by imagining that the gods, immortals, heroes and villains of Greek mythology are regenerating into the modern world, they have their memories, but not necessarily their powers. Through a documentary series, Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy, is examining the story of Medusa and Perseus through a series of interviews. Zeus is a Republican candidate for President. (Vote Hades!). The stories by two of my favorite authors, Suleikha Snyder and Alyssa Cole […]



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