Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A cozy paranormal romance for the holidays~

Clara, Darling by Chace Verity

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Chace Verity is one of my absolute fave authors, and they’ve held that title since their debut, Team Phison, so any time they have a new release I get all excited. Clara, Darling is a holiday (Christmas) novella, but unlike Verity’s previous Christmas story (Team Phison Forever), this has much less family trauma and is almost dream-like in its story tell. Sadie has been married to Alvin for ten years, but in all that time she’s never forgotten her best friend and first love, Clara. […]

Based on truth, lies, myths, and rumors

Al Capone by Swann Meralli

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Al Capone by Swann Meralli and illustrated by Pierre-François Radice is told from Capone’s POV but due to who he was, and the images given, we know he is not a reliable narrator. However, he does tell you “the facts” but his version is colored by his personality and the fact he is telling his mother his side of things. It is an interesting graphic novel that highlights important events that will start with him as a child (which little to nothing is known), continue […]

“That’s the problem with living in New York. You’ve got no New York to run away to.”

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

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In five-ish words: sophisticated, entertaining, New York, haunted I know a lot of people who say that Towles’ “Gentleman in Moscow” is their favorite book. I haven’t read it yet and have it on my TBR, somewhere middling in the middle. But then a co-host on my podcast recommended “Rules of Civility” for her “must read book” so this one rocketed straight to the top. I felt compelled to pick it up and I’m so glad I did! His writing is so clever and he […]

Nowhere had she encountered as many puppeteers as in Hollywood

Table for Two by Amor Towles

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CBR16 BINGO: Golden, because the novella Eve in Hollywood takes place during the Golden Age of Hollywood BINGO: Part 1, Part 2, Dreams, Golden, Scandal I was so taken with A Gentleman in Moscow that the gathering up and devouring of more of Amor Towles’s works became inevitable. While not quite reaching the same level of charm as the aforementioned tale of a Russian aristocrat, Table for Two is a solid collection of short narratives that mingle humor, tragedy, and resilience. Table for Two feels like […]

Monkey Business

Ivanov by Hanna Bervoets

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It’s 1994 and student Felix van der Elsken has just arrived at JFK airport to begin his studies at an unspecified New York university. Felix is young, gay, and desperately looking for connection and a way to shape his identity. A few months after his stay, he meets a young scientist named Helena. New York in 1994 is in the throes of the AIDS-epidemic, and Helena has made it her mission to find a cure in a decidedly unorthodox fashion. Felix is toying with the […]

Campsite Reads

The Alewives by Elizabeth R. Andersen

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

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We took a brief holiday over the Ascension Day weekend, and because my kids didn’t really want to leave the campsite I got the chance to catch up on my reading. I finished three books. The third one deserves its own review, but I grouped the other two together. The Alewives (Elizabeth R. Anderson) **  In the Middle Ages, in the tannery district of the Alsation town of Colmar, four women team up to brew ale, bemoan their useless and/or dead husbands, and solve crimes. […]



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