Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Hollyweird

Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker

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I enjoyed this one almost in spite of itself. Being on a Hollywood/LA kick, I decided to tackle this during a space in my schedule where I’d have a lot of time to read. And I was able to binge it in two days. It helped that the writing is good. I loved Baker’s prose, his smooth storytelling ways, etc. And the characters were interesting enough to indulge in. The execution though. That was…something. Frankly, I can stand the weird stuff that Barker is known […]

History of the MCU and lessons in chemistry have been taught on audiobook

MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, Gavin Edwards - narrated by Andrew Kishino and Joanna Robinson

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - narrated by Miranda Raison

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What do MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, a non-fiction history of the creation and rise of Marvel Studios, and Lessons in Chemistry, a fiction narrative of a lady scientist, have in common?  Misogyny and a lot of it. I had the incredibly good fortune to be in Hall H, at the San Diego Comic Con, when the very first footage of Iron Man was shown in 2007 and have been a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan ever since.  MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios came onto my radar from Pajiba, […]

February-March 2024 Leftovers

The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones

A Lowcountry Bride by Preslaysa Williams

Bone White by Ronald Malfi

Alexander the Great by Phillip Freeman

Nero: Matricide, Murder and Music in Imperial Rome by Anthony Everitt and Roddy Ashworth

Beyond a Boundary by C.L.R. James

A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block

The Killing Kind by John Connolly

Shōgun by James Clavell

Nobody's Angel by Jack Clark

A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown's Most Shocking Crime by Casey Sherman

Village in the Dark by Iris Yamashita

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland

The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Woolraich

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Rain, rain, go away. I thought my reading count looked too low and then I realized I didn’t do leftovers for February, so here’s Feb-March combined. The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and Rise of the Tudors ***** Jones is such a talented historian. Gets all the important stuff of the Wars of the Roses in great detail and lets the story entertain. His Templars book will soon be on my radar. A Lowcountry Bride**** Had to read this for a library […]

That’s Showbusiness?

Complicit by Winnie M Li

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I’m really impressed with how much Winnie M Li was trying to accomplish with this book. For the most part, I think she pulled it off. Because I had it in my head how this was going to go when I read it: unassuming young female on a movie set gets assaulted by a Harvey Weinstein clone. But it’s really more than that. In living up to its title, Winnie M Li shows how the whole system is wretched, including Sarah, nominally the protagonist, who […]

Horror Month 2023: #7

The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman

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This is the kind of horror I was hoping to get into when I started my horror-only commitment this month. While I don’t think it was an especially good book, it did what it needed to do for me and I enjoyed it. I’ve never been a big horror movie fan for several reasons: 1. I’m a scaredy cat, 2. I find most of the blood and gore stuff to be tastelessly pornographic. 3. I prefer verisimilitude in books and movies. Also, jump scares really […]

Old Hollywood Movie Magic Comes Alive, really!

Just Beyond: Monstrosity  by R. L. Stine

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Goosebumps meets Alfred Hitchcock meets the Scooby Gang meets family drama in Just Beyond: Monstrosity by R. L. Stine, Irene Flores and Joana Lafuente. This is a fun story of a brother and sister (Ruthie and Ezra Dillon) whose father and uncle have purchased an old horror movie studio. But strange occurrences are happening and the hauntings might be more than just movie magic. Split between the point of view of Now and the original 1950s studio (but mostly now) this is a cute, little spooky, graphic novel for […]



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