Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Bond, Jimmy Bond

SilverFin: The Graphic Novel by Charlie Higson

by Leave a Comment

I must have read this in the novel format as this morning, when sitting down to write my review, everything seemed to feel familiar. It also could be that this is a very common mystery/adventure story of a young boy trying to find out why another boy went missing, making friends and figuring out what the plan of the villain is (who of course is the father of the bully the boy must deal with at school). SilverFin: The Graphic Novel is an interpretation of […]

Man’s Greatest Mistake is Underestimating Women

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott

by Leave a Comment

While the title and the cover art would have one presuming this was some terrible historical romance novel, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy is actually an amazingly researched, heavily detailed historical non-fiction about four women’s contributions to the outcome of the American Civil War.  The book follows two unionists, Emma Edmonds (aka Frank Thompson) and Elizabeth Van Lew, and two secessionists, Belle Boyd and Rose Greenhow, through the five years of the war, along with a summation of their lives after the war ends as well. The […]

A badass female spy network? What’s not to love?!

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

by Leave a Comment

CBR11 Bingo – Far and Away   This category is a bit broad, but hopefully a novel set on a different continent in a different time period is far enough away? 🙂 The Alice Network starts off with American co-ed Charlotte (Charlie) St. Clair travelling to Europe to get “a little problem” taken care of (1947 translation: she done got knocked up out of wedlock and her wealthy parents are insisting on an abortion in Switzerland). Charlie’s motivations for agreeing to the trip to Europe […]

I have no idea what I was expecting from this book, but it for sure wasn’t this wackiness.

The Spellman Files (The Spellmans, #1) by Lisa Lutz

by Leave a Comment

This was wacky and fun, but also mildly emotionally exhausting. Constant wackiness takes it out of you. For the second time in one day, I find myself wishing for half stars. I’m not even going to try and sum up the plot/premise of this book, because it is a futile endeavor. But also, half the fun is not knowing what’s about to happen. Actually, that’s a lie. I did try and sum it up, and everything I typed sounded vile, and also spoiled things. So […]

In fact, as I get used to the idea in the days that follow, it begins to make sense of a lot of things.

Spies by Michael Frayn

by Leave a Comment

I’ve had this book for a number of years and never got around to reading it. I am not entirely sure why, but I also put it in a Little Free Library clearing out shelf space, but I recently picked it back out of there to finally read it. I had read an article about what British schools make kids read and this was on one of the lists. It’s about a group of boys during WWII who play a game that they become entirely […]

A Different Kind of Spy Novel

by Leave a Comment

Charles McCarry meets the kind of Goldilocks/middlebrow standard I look for in spy novels: not too complex, not too simple, not too jingoistic, not too cynical. Juuuuust right. This is the third I’ve read of his Paul Christopher series and like the last two, the plot gripped me. It’s a deep plot but not so convoluted that it loses the reader. Every scene has a purpose; there are few red herrings. It hurtles its way towards its sad, surprising end, tying in perfectly with the […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo