Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Hopefully the last one of these I three-star for a while.

A Better Man (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #15) by Louise Penny

by Leave a Comment

Not too much to say about this one. Not one of my favorites of this series. Parts of it I really liked, and parts of it I really did not. It’s been over a month now, and I’ve read 1,000 books since then, so I’m really not remembering specifics here. I remember there was a missing woman, and that plotline was interesting. I wished I was more interested in the plotline where Gamache comes back to be the head of the homicide department, a move […]

“As for order, it is my express wish to live as ordered a life as possible. But the world is filled with random chaos that often devils my attempts at arrangement.”

The Maid by Nita Prose

by Leave a Comment

I was really worried I wouldn’t like this, and I so wanted to like this. I heard the premise (maid finds dead body in hotel room, becomes suspect, decides to solve crime), pointed my finger, and loudly ejaculated, “THAT BOOK IS FOR ME.” Sorry I used ‘ejaculated,’ I just never have before (I don’t think?) and it was calling to me. I’ve been reading too much historical fiction set in 19th century England lately. People were always ejaculating back then*. *I could not type this with […]

Everything is not what it seems

A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight

by 3 Comments

Lizzie Kitsakis is working late in her office one night, at the prestigious New York law firm Young & Crane. It’s not the job she pictured for herself, she was perfectly content working as an underpaid federal prosecutor, but her husband’s alcoholism has forced her hand into taking this better paying, yet less rewarding job handling white-collar cases. She’s about to head home when she receives a collect call from Rikers Island. On the line is Zach Grayson, an old friend from college, now millionaire, […]

“‘That man’s lying.’ With that, he opened his suitcase and took out a blank telegram. After a few moments, he began to write. KATSUKO DEAD. SEND KINDAICHI.”

The Honjin Murders (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi, #1) by Seishi Yokomizo

by Leave a Comment

A clever, meta little Japanese murder mystery, first published in 1946, by a man who was apparently a huge fan of the western Golden Age mystery. This is the first book in the Kosuke Kindaichi series that he wrote dozens of novels for. Kindaichi-san is very unlike his British counterparts, Poirot, Wimsey, or even Marple. He’s very young, and a bit of a slob, but he has a mind for mysteries. Here, he is brought to the scene of a wedding where the bride and […]

“The things my brother and I don’t say could pave over the Atlantic Ocean.”

Seven For a Secret (Timothy Wilde, #2) by Lyndsay Faye

by Leave a Comment

See, this is why I was asking how many five-star reviews in a month is too many, because I kind of want to give this one five stars, too! Great mystery, great character work (brothers! <3 <3), great second book in a trilogy (a rare thing!), impeccable historical fiction. This is the main book I read while on vacation last week, and because I was distracted by friends and food and reality TV (they made me watch Love is Blind!!! ilikedit), I read it over […]

There is more food in this one than in the last one, if that’s even possible. Have your local Filipino restaurant on standby whilst reading.

Homicide and Halo-Halo (Tita Rosie's Kitchen, #2) by Mia P. Manansala

by Leave a Comment

I told myself I would continue with this series if the writing got better in this book, and it did! There were a couple rather tragic instances of dialogue (see below*), but for the most part both the dialogue and inner narration/characterization for Lila got much better. I feel like I have a better handle on who she is as a person, where in the first one she was sort of a blank slate. There is still a lot of room for improvement, but I […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo