Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Why had my life suddenly become a Nancy Drew mystery from hell?”

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Big Lie by Anthony Del Col

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Review title is a quote from Rachel Hawkins’ Demonglass This book is like comic book fan fiction from my 8th grade brain. But more violent, and less me-as-Bess-kissing-a-cute-Frank-Hardy. Imagine the writers of Riverdale picked a different universe to focus their melodramatic musings on. Imagine that world was the pivotal Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys super mysteries, when it seemed like maybe they were trying to do a Christopher Pike thing? (For the record, The Nancy Drew Files were my favorite version.) But imagine instead of leaning into […]

The Review and the Review

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This is my first ever double-review! I have borrowed the wonderful extra brain that is my friend Amy. We met briefly in England and now she’s in Georgia and I’m in Denmark. We’ve read the same book and then I’ve bombarded her with loads of questions in an effort to ensure that she’d do most of the work, because well Amy’s brilliant and I love hearing what she thinks. I, of course, stole these questions shamelessly from the internet so there is nothing original about […]

Greatness

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Read for CBR10Bingo: Book was better. The movie is one of my all-time favorites. This is my first time reading the novel. I’ve read five James Ellroy books in the last few months so if you want my thoughts on my personal evolution towards his works, check past reviews. Having read the tail end of his work and the beginning of what made him popular, I can say with confidence this is the best book he’s written. It’s the perfect merger of his style and […]

A Nice, Relaxing Lakehouse Getaway…Just Kidding!

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The Lady in the Lake, Chandler’s fourth Philip Marlowe novel, gets the private eye out of 1940s Los Angeles and into the California countryside. You would think the hard-boiled detective is just looking for a little TLC after all the murders and blackjacks to the skull, but that’s not his style. Just look at the title! Trouble seems to follow Marlowe like a hangover fart.  This is a different kind of Marlowe novel, in my opinion. The previous books featured a more sardonic, cosmopolitan, up-for-anything […]

So…I guess I like James Ellroy now?

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I began the calendar year 2018 with the belief that, among other things, I would never be a fan of James Ellroy. Many readers have that one author they think they should like, perhaps because they are drawn to said author’s specific genre (for me, that’s mystery novels, particularly moody period pieces set in LA). And they try, try, and try again to get into their books with no luck. James Ellroy is that writer for me. I read American Tabloid years ago and it was a […]

Texas noir. #CBRBingo

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Project: Catch Up On Review Backlog commences. No promises on the quality of my next ten or so reviews. I just want to get them done. (This will probably unfortunately result in subpar reviews for books that deserve much better.) Let’s start with a book I finished over a month ago, Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke. First things first, this book was incredibly well done. It’s a crime book set in Texas, featuring a black Texas Ranger as its protagonist. I knew that going in. […]



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