patrick dewitt – Cannonball Read 17

My Stance on Westerns Remains Unchanged – Probably Not for Me

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

July 15, 2024 by RouletteGirl Leave a Comment

For a woman who enjoys a good Western movie (Tombstone is my jam!), I don’t read a lot – or really any – Westerns. For the 2024 Popsugar Reading Challenge, prompt #11 asks you to read a book in a genre you typically avoid. And since I’d bought an ebook of The Sisters Brothers years ago but never gotten around to reading it, I knew what book I’d use to fill that prompt. The Sisters Brothers was… interesting. Patrick deWitt doesn’t shy away from describing […]

Fools and Their Money

French Exit by Patrick DeWitt

May 11, 2023 by jeverett15 Leave a Comment

To give you some context, I read this book a while ago and just forgot to write a review, so my memory of it isn’t quite as fresh as I would like it to be. Frances Price and her son Malcolm are idly rich New Yorkers who have been gradually spending down the fortune accrued by their husband and father Frank, a cutthroat lawyer who neither of them had much feeling for by the end. At long last, their accountant gives them the bad news […]

A fairytale picaresque

Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt

June 4, 2021 by Rooooomie 1 Comment

Patrick deWitt doesn’t know it, but I have high expectations for his novels. His 2011 book The Sisters Brothers is one of my favorite reads, a comedic adventure that I absolutely could not put down. I was less of a fan of his 2018 novel French Exit, but decided to give Undermajordomo Minor a try anyway, with the hope that he would be able to recapture the magic that made The Sisters Brothers so enjoyable. It didn’t quite do the trick for me, but there is still a lot […]

Just Because It’s Brief Doesn’t Mean It Isn’t Painful

Ablutions by Patrick DeWitt

January 17, 2019 by janet snakehole 1 Comment

Do you love the show Intervention, but find it too glossy and upbeat? Do you feel the problem with Charles Bukowski is that he was just a bit too cheerful? Then this might just be the book for you. Ablutions is narrated by an unnamed Barman (I’d say he’s our protagonist but I’m not entirely sure that is the case) working in a deeply depressing, lowest-of-lowbrow Hollywood bar. Imagine all the magnificent wealth, glamour, and luxury of Hollywood. Cool, now imagine the polar opposite of […]

This Book Could Have Been Any Number of Bingo Squares (CBR10Bingo)

September 9, 2018 by faintingviolet 3 Comments

I have an enormous backlog. My Goodreads account tells me as of today, I have 649 books on my Want to Read shelf. I still have 62 that I added on the day I joined, January 6, 2012 during my first year participating in Cannonball Read 4. What better book to knock off the Backlog square than something I was introduced to in my first week of Cannonball Read and has been languishing for more than six years on Mount TBR (and has a movie […]

Not John Wayne’s West

June 11, 2017 by The Chancellor Leave a Comment

Carl and Eli Sisters are two hired guns on the West Coast during the California Gold Rush era. We follow them from their hometown of Oregon City to San Francisco to the foothills of the Sierra. They are hired gunmen and their target this time is a prospector who may have found a way to discover gold using science. Along the way, we learn the complexities of being a gunslinger that is often times overlooked in many of our Westerns as well as the fact […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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