I generally really enjoy Karen Robards’ novels, so I was excited to get her latest, Darkness (2016), when it finally came in at the library. I can usually count on her for some romantic adventure and excitement. Her books can be a little too violent sometimes, but I’ll overlook it if she sucks me into the story. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t do it for me. I did listen to it on CD instead of reading it, but I’m pretty sure reading it wouldn’t have made […]
My first graphic [novel] travelogue
I first heard of Displacement (2015) by Lucy Knisley from another Cannonball review. Knisley is a twenty-something writer who volunteers to chaperone her aging grandparents when they unexpectedly sign up for a cruise. I’d never read a graphic novel [or travelogue] before, but this one called to me for a number of reasons. First, the review was very positive and persuasive. Second, I have never been on a cruise, and I’m pretty sure that’s been a good decision. Right now, most of my knowledge of cruises […]
Gillian Flynn-like murder mystery with some horrible characters
When a random woman at Costco goes out of her way to recommend a book to you, then you listen–especially when that book is already on your to-read list. I had to wait forever for The Girl on the Train (2015) by Paula Hawkins to become available at my library. I guess I wasn’t the only one who had heard good things. The Girl on the Train is a murder mystery. In many ways it reminded me of Gone Girl and other books by Gillian Flynn–primarily because both […]
A Fairy Tale in the Alaska Wilderness
The Snow Child (2012) by Eowyn Ivey is a book I had never heard of and wouldn’t have chosen to read if it weren’t for my book club. In fact, after reading the description, I was dreading it: “Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart–he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they […]