Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Woman is a Mule, or “What’s in that trunk, Adelaide?”, or a Novel of Second Chances

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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I met Victor LaValle at a literary fest a few years ago. While handing him a copy of The Changeling, which was his latest novel at the time and the book I had just finished reading, I said to him, “I feel like I’m the person you’re writing these books for. You’re writing these books for me.” And I meant it then and I mean it now. There’s a point at which LaValle started writing the books he knew he was meant to write (he has […]

An elegiac paean that didn’t convey what it’s author wanted

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

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In 1981, Bruce Springsteen was in talks with Paul Schrader to star in a musical that would, six years later, become Light of Day, and starred Michael J. Fox in one of his first non-comedic roles. The film was originally titled Born in the U.S.A., which Springsteen would use to title a song he’d been working on about a Vietnam veteran. After going through several home demo permutations, it would eventually be the center-point for his 1984 multi-platinum album of the same name, and helped […]

What’s in the trunk Adelaide?

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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Adelaide Henry is a woman on the run. She is traveling to Montana to take advantage of the offer of free land to homesteaders regardless of gender, dragging only an enormous steamer trunk behind her. Adelaide isn’t the only lone woman in Montana with secrets. Can she escape her past? What happens if she stops trying? Little House on the Prairie this is not. I picked this book up on the strength of past works by this author that I’ve enjoyed and was not disappointed. […]

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Birds Galore

The Partridge by Kit Morgan

The Dove by Shanna Hatfield

The Hens by Merry Farmer

The Calling Birds by Jacqui Nelson

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Sometimes you’re just in the mood for plain and simple mail order bride romances. Lots of them. The Partridge (Kit Morgan) – 3 stars Reverend Chase Hammond, determined to save the town of Noelle, sends away for mail order brides to prove that the town can be a true civilized community. Of course, when the women actually arrive, things don’t run smoothly according to plan. This is the first book in the series, so a lot of the story involves legwork setting up the scenario […]

“No one had ever held my hand before. Somehow people in Texoma always needed their hands free. I found it a little hot, a little sweaty, and since we were yoked we had to match our pace. But it made me feel good.”

A Longer Fall (Gunnie Rose #2) by Charlaine Harris

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Charlaine Harris (she of the Tru Blood series) knows how to write a breezy entertaining romp, not quite a “can’t put down” page-turner, but a book you are happy to go back into in a world that has interesting magical elements. Her characters can be a bit wooden and two-dimensional, but synonyms for that could be familiar and comforting. Her writing is straightforward and easy to read, with violence and a bit of sexy sprinkled throughout, the type of book that I would qualify as […]

The cowboys are Librarians who work with more than books

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

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Upright Women Wanted has a really interesting set-up: take your standard Western setting, and instead of cowboys, substitute a group of women called Librarians, whose supposed job is to delivery Approved Materials for reading and pick up the old or worn out materials for fixing up. Esther wants to join the Librarians to get away from her past and she stows away in a Librarian wagon. Obviously she gets caught and reaches a tentative agreement with the Head Librarian Bet about apprenticing. The novella follows […]



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