Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Don’t stop beginning. Begin and begin and begin. Begin endlessly—that is, without the taint of even eventual ending.”

All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess by Becca Rothfeld

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Literary critic Becca Rothfeld argues against the modern inclination toward minimalism, and insteads advocates embracing all the messy and irrepressible things that make the human existence so rewarding. I am this book’s target audience, because like Rothfeld I wonder if in the process of streamlining our world we have reached an unpleasantly bland and bloodless zeitgeist. I enjoy colorful and unusual clothes and furniture. I find the aesthetic of minimalism boring. I love the over the top pulp literature of yesteryears. I don’t want the […]

Unicorn Found: A Genuinely Good Dairy-free, Gluten-free Baking Book

Craveworthy Baking: Delicious Dairy-Free and Gluten-Free Cakes, Cookies, Breads, and More by Danielle Cochran

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Danielle Cochran’s Craveworthy Baking is a unicorn, magical and rare. Finding good, easy recipes that are gluten free or dairy free is harder than you think, and finding both, *throws hands up in despair.* I have not only preordered this book, I have ordered a copy for a friend. Now I will confess that I’ve taken my attempts at some of the recipes a step further, I made some of them sugar free too. On Sundays I bake for family dinner, and family includes 3 people […]

He wanted to roll over and invite her to pet his belly, but he was in human form and it was a little too soon to be asking for that.

Fangs So Bright & Deadly by Piper J. Drake

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In the first of Piper J. Drake’s Mythwoven series, Wings once Cursed & Bound, Marie, a witch, is helped by two nine-tailed foxes while she is a part of a team rescuing Peeraphan. We know them only as Fox Number One and Fox Number Two, but that very short scene also reveals that they work with a morally grey organization called Babel, they took part in Peeraphan’s kidnapping and then regretted it when they learned the purpose, and they are very, very impressed with Marie. It […]

Bleeding Innocence Dry

Saving Susy Sweetchild by Barbara Hambly

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CBR16 Bingo: Disco – This mystery’s set amid the bright lights of 1920s Hollywood, featuring both it’s fast-living stars and the people behind the scenes who prop them up. English widow Emma has settled comfortably into her new life in 1920s Hollywood as her silent movie star sister-in-law’s companion and part-time script doctor. When a child star and her mother are kidnapped, she gets swept up in the mystery, if only because she and Kitty may be the only ones who really care if Susy […]

Conversations with Houses

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Rose/House by Arkady Martine

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CBR16 Bingo: Dun Dun – Both books play on your nerves, and just when you think the protagonists may be reaching safe harbor things only get worse for them. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – 4 stars Four people go to an allegedly haunted house to investigate – a scientist, a cheerful artist, a low down scoundrel, and a fragile, friendless young woman. All of them don’t return. This is a short book and slips by almost without you noticing it. At first […]

How could one ever capture a star?

The Muse of Maiden Lane by Mimi Matthews

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CBR16 Bingo: Celestial – Teddy paints Stella as Electra, one of the Pleiades of Greek mythology – the daughters of the Titan Atlas who were transformed into stars by Zeus. Grey-haired Stella is the only one of her friends still unwed, and does not expect to marry soon either. But between her new acquaintance with aspiring artist Teddy and the pressure from her brother’s impending marriage, Stella finds that her path may not be what she always envisioned. After a whirlwind read of the previous three […]



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