Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

They Call It University

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

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Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: starts with I It’s really tough to go long on The It Girl because there are dozens of these types of what’s billed as “dark academia” thrillers and while this is better than most, it’s not really inspired. Y’know this genre by now: they usually involve a secret society, a group of friends, a dead body, and time jumps. Most are indistinguishable from one another. They’re fine if that’s your thing, not trying to yuck anyone’s yum. But you know what’s […]

“Stop dreaming about the spires. It was a dreadful place and those were dreadful people, and you and I got caught in their games and paid for it.”

Death in the Spires by K.J. Charles

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If you read The Secret History and hated the characters, and the bleak ending made you feel terrible, this might be the book for you! In her first non-romance, we’ve got K.J. Charles trying her hand (and succeeding) at a historical mystery, dark academia style. It’s 1905, and our main character is Jeremy “Jem” Kite, who has just been fired from his job when a letter accusing him of murder showed up in his employers’ mail. This is not the first or even the tenth such letter […]

TFW The Trenches of WWI Beat Life at Oxford, Any Day

Good-Bye to All That by Robert Graves

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Bingo Square Shelfie Good-Bye to All That is rather a “Boy’s Own” version of, Robert Graves’ (the Irish-British poet) account of his public school and war years – WWI, that is.  Schooling started at Charterhouse School and continued at Oxford, and Graves did not enjoy any bit of it.  As soon as the War started, Graves signed up, as an officer, and never looked back.  War, it turned out, was far more his element. Graves was one of the several British poets involved in WWI, […]

A Charming Romp Through Victorian England

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore

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Oh boy, it looks like I have a new author to follow! In her first novel, Evie Dunmore dives into the academic world of Oxford, royalty, and Parliament in the heart of the Victorian era. What follows is an absolutely charming romp into the stifled world of upper-crust society featuring class-crossed lovers.  Our heroine is Annabelle, a young woman who is unmarried and headstrong who finds herself stuck. She gets into the newly formed woman’s college at Oxford thanks to a scholarship sponsored by the […]

Very specific historical non-fiction

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

The Hello Girls: America's First Women Soldiers by Elizabeth Cobbs

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Simon Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman was a fun little footnote of history expanded into an interesting book. The Oxford English Dictionary is THE authority for words in the english language and this book describes what was essentially the invention of dictionaries and the significance that had. The compilation of words for the dictionary required a massive effort so Professor James Murray requested the assistance of the public. That’s when Dr. W. C. Minor began contributing words and first usages to the OED.  Minor […]

Would probably have worked better if I had read previous books in the series

Someone Like You by Lauren Layne

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3.5 stars From Goodreads: Lincoln Mathis doesn’t hide his reputation as Manhattan’s ultimate playboy. In fact, he cultivates it. But behind every flirtatious smile, each provocative quip, there’s a secret that Lincoln’s hiding from even his closest friends—a tragedy from his past that holds his heart quietly captive. Lincoln knows what he wants: someone like Daisy Sinclair, the sassy, off-limits bridesmaid he can’t take his eyes off at his best friend’s wedding. He also knows that she’s everything he can never have. After a devastating […]



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