Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This One’s A Thriller

The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben MacIntyre

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First of all: RIP Oleg Gordievsky. I picked this up unaware he died earlier in March. Or maybe I had heard it and my subconscious urged me to read it. Either way, hope he rests in peace. Yeah the “reads like a thriller” tag is accurate here. I really do need to read more Ben MacIntyre. I’ve tried with MacIntyre before and while his books are good, I need to be in a specific headspace to read non-fiction and stuff kept getting in the way. […]

Thanksgiving 2024 Leftovers

Remembrance Day by Henry Porter

Dead Lions by Mick Herron

Zero Days by Ruth Ware

Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman

Killing Castro by Lawrence Block

Deadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins

Spy Hook by Len Deighton

London Rules by Mick Herron

Real Tigers by Mick Herron

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Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate. Remembrance Day**** An interesting take on the English-vs-Irish spy novel and while the author telegraphs too many things, he knows how to keep a story moving. Barely clears the 4-star threshold but if I invest time to read something almost 500 pages long, it has to be at least “good” and this was. Dead Lions, Real Tigers, and London Rules**** I had originally meant to do a big long post on my love/grr relationship with Mick Herron’s Slough House […]

Meet Allon, Gabriel Again

The Cellist by Daniel Silva

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I’ve been in a spy novel mood lately and, eventually, found myself circling back to the Gabriel Allon series. I read the first ten books years ago when I had something people call “free time.” I liked the idea of an art restorer as a spy and it was neat to see things from the perspective of the Mossad but like a lot of series, it lost its originality after a while and I put it aside. When researching which book to come back to, […]

Choosing to create a full life despite being imprisoned by circumstances

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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A Gentleman in Moscow was my book club’s pick for February, otherwise I likely would never have picked it up.  Amongst our tiny group one person noped out, one person was struggling 100 pages in (unknown if they finished it), but I found myself curious and kept going.  While the writing could ramble, sometimes giving asides that have no pertinence to the story, I found myself drawn into the tiny world of Count Alexander Rostov sentenced to live the rest of his life at the Metropol […]

“For what, for whom, must I kill and be killed?”

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

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The basics: Tolstoy’s War and Peace is the story of a few prominent Russian families around the period of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Roughly, the first part is fancy dinners and balls as the Russian elite try to make sense of Alexander’s liberal policies and the role of Napoleon in Europe. The second part is about Napoleon’s military exploits in 1812-1813. The last part (roughly 20%) is the aftermath. Even though my version is 884 pages of small print, ultimately I found it fresh and […]

From Serf to Empress

Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten

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CBR 15 Bingo – History: This is a historical novel which in following the rise of Catherine I recreates the world of late 17th century Russia. Born a serf, Marta manages through her cunning and luck to rise through society until she becomes the mistress and later wife of Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia. This is an insane story of stratospheric social mobility, and I am shocked I hadn’t heard of it beyond Alpsten’s books. There’s plenty of shadowy corners in Catherine’s biography in […]



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