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 […]

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

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The ending and reveal on how things ended up the way they did really just ruined my enjoyment of this book. I really wish that Ware had went a different way with this one. I liked the whole idea of this being a homage of “And Then There Were One” with everyone being moved to a deserted island via a reality tv show. But once you get to how they all got there and why and the big gaping plot holes about why X and […]

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 […]

Twist and Shout

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

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Rowan works at a London daycare with the suitably horrible name Little Nippers. Though she likes the children, she dislikes her coworkers and the put-upon, complaining parents that she has to deal with. She lives in a cramped, run-down apartment, which she shares with a coworker who is now on Sabbatical. So when she finds a job ad for a live-in nanny on a country estate in the Scottish Highlands, she does whatever she can to get the job. It doesn’t go well; the book […]

“They pick volatile people, people who’re going to perform for the cameras, they wind them up as tight as they can, they engineer a bunch of high-stress situations that are practically guaranteed to make someone lose their shit, throw in some alcohol—and then they sit back and let the cameras roll and the tweets pour in.”

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

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If you’re looking for another summer read to lazily sink your reading teeth into, Ruth Ware is usually a pretty good choise, and this one is no different. With a beachy setting, lots of intrigue and vapid people it’s a recipe for grand escapism. For anyone who is a mindful consumer of reality TV (i.e. you know it’s fake but you love it anyway) this is a fun peak behind the fictional curtain of a British show set on a tropical island meant to showcase […]

“I jumped to a conclusion that was so wrong, it was almost completely right.”

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

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The journey to me reading this book was a funny one. I accompanied my husband to a birthday party for a classmate, which was held at said classmate’s childhood friend’s apartment. At said party, I got to talking about books with the partner of the childhood friend, as you do when you don’t know anyone at a party but you see a good-looking bookshelf, and then they, a complete stranger, loaned me this book. Because let’s be real: book people are the BEST people. I’d […]



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