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

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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 […]

“He really was an idiot, but he was an idiot for Tommy Cabot, and maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.”

Tommy Cabot Was Here (The Cabots, #1) by Cat Sebastian

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This was a very sweet second chance romance novella set in 1959. I don’t normally like second chance romances all that much, but in this case, Sebastian plays it perfectly. Our two main characters went to an all-boys school for almost their entire childhoods, and Everett was in love Tommy for most of it. But Tommy married a woman, moved away, and the two of them stopped speaking. Now in their thirties, Everett is a teacher at their old school, and Tommy has made the […]

How does one describe this book?

Freedom & Necessity by Steven Brust & Emma Bull

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I’m having the hardest time writing this review, but I just need to suck it up and word vomit out something, because I read this back in March. The problem is, I have no idea how to describe this strange, strange book. And also, not sure how I feel about it? Like, I enjoyed it? I gave it four stars (well, 3.5)? But I also still find it confounding. By the way, Steven Brust and Emma Bull teaming up to write this somehow led me […]

“A society that does not respect women’s anger is one that does not respect women; not as human beings, thinkers, knowers, active participants, or citizens.”

Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger by Soraya Chemaly

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“Is it possible to read a book about anger and not get mad? I haven’t found it possible in writing one. What are we doing? Why does anyone think that men who cannot say the word ‘period’ and do not know that the vagina and stomach are not connected are competent and trustworthy leaders?” I want to get my thoughts out before my book club meeting tomorrow (during which I have been told we will be smashing things! with protective eyewear*). I almost feel like […]

“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

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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 […]

“But there are many fools in the world. One praises God for their existence and keeps out of their way.”

The Man in the Brown Suit (Colonel Race, #1) by Agatha Christie

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This was a fun outlier in Christie’s body of work, though it is actually one of her earliest published books. She doesn’t normally do thrillers or espionage (and when she does it’s often not all that great), or feature one-off main characters, or feature a narrative that has travel and adventure in it, but this book has all of that. It’s also unfortunately one of the more dated of Christie’s works because it takes place outside that domestic sphere her other work is so comfortable […]



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