Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

B is for Ballad

The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings

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Bingo 1: “B” square I was in New Orleans in January for a work conference; the only time I went into the French Quarter was to visit a bookstore. On the local interest shelf there was one title I vaguely recognized: The Ballad of Perilous Graves. This was for the first half a generally interesting musical and magical realism kind of mystery in which local kids notice something is wrong with the spirit of the city of Nola and must then save everyone and everything […]

“‘I don’t like to judge—’ I whisper to the rat. ‘I hear you love to judge,’ says the rat. ‘Okay, I do love to judge. I love it, but I am trying to be a better pony.'” CBRBINGO – Favorite

Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch

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To be honest, I kind of though in my heart of hearts that this book wouldn’t be worth the $27 I paid for it, and like many cozy mysteries, would turn out not be very well written and have a predictable, churned-out plot. Very happy to report that I was wrong. This isn’t even a cozy mystery, despite what the premise and the cover might lead you to believe. What this actually is . . . I don’t even know how to explain. We have […]

The Murderbot Diaries – the novellas and the short stories. Some were re-reads, some were new to me

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy by Martha Wells

Rogue Protocol by Matha Wells

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

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My original reviews and ratings for the first four novellas can be found here. CBR17 Bingo: Favourite (goes for the whole series, and the protagonist) All Systems Red Nowhere Book Bingo 25: First in a series   It’s been five years since I first read The Murderbot Diaries, and it was interesting to revisit the original novella. This was selected as the January selection for my real-life book club (with the option to read the other three if people had time). While a lot of the members really enjoyed […]

The Patriarchal Cult

The Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen

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Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: green cover. See photo. I’ve had some major life changes this year; mostly good, some not so good. As a result, I’m not only behind on my reading but I’m not cataloging here like I usually do. Maybe at some point, I’ll do a series of posts on the books I’ve read this year that I just didn’t have time or energy to write about. I lift this up because I’ve been diving through the Department Q series thanks […]

Kin in Far-flung Places

A Disappearance in Fiji by Nilima Rao

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CBR17 Bingo: Diaspora – This story is intimately bound up in the experience of the Indian diaspora in colonial Fiji, who went to work there as indentured servants but were in reality little more than slaves. Caught between demotion and disgrace, Indian police officer Akal Singh is instead posted to colonial Fiji, where an investigation into the vanishing of an indentured Indian woman from a sugarcane plantation is complicated by the political pressures within the British Empire. I’m a sucker for an unusual setting in […]

The Thiefs

Old Black Magic by Ace Atkins

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Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: starts with O I have heard from many living old school mystery writers that the modern PI mystery tales in the States can be traced back to Spenser. Having gone out of vogue with the deaths of Chandler and Hammett — and with only Ross Macdonald elevating the genre — the hardboiled PI tale had taken a back seat by the time Robert B. Parker began building his prodigious catalog in the early-70s. Which is why I’ve given more […]



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