My very first Cannonball review. Here’s hoping I can read and review the full Cannonball. Reading them won’t be a problem, it’s the reviewing. For my first book I’m presenting Speak Easy by Catherynne Valente. Zelda Fair lives in hotel Artemisia, and it’s the hotel of your 1920’s dreams. There are parties on every floor and Zelda is the toast of all of them. Frankie, a poor bellhop, is besotted with her. And Al, the underground ruler of it all, steals her away. Catherynne Valente […]
1920s Haunted Assylum? Yes, Please!
This is the second novel by Simone St James I’ve listened to, and both were gripping. A little bit of a slow start, but they pick up and just race to the finish. I picked a good one to start my Cannonball Read adventure! We start with Kitty Weekes, a poor London girl on the run, pretending to be a nurse at a psychiatric facility for Shell Shock patients returned to Britain after the first World War. But of course, not everything is as it seems […]
Wicked After Midnight
As a long time Pajiba reader (but never commentor, always lurker) I remember AlabamaPink’s charm and wit and was saddened by the world’s loss when she passed. As a parent of an 8 and 4 year old, my to read pile is ever increasing at a steady rate as I don’t seem to have the time to read that I once did. This year I have decided to read more, and justify all the books I buy, and figured the Cannonball Read would be a […]
A life measured and found wanting
We all know this story. We’ve seen it acted out with Muppets, or Mickey Mouse, or monstrosities that reside in the Uncanny Valley of Doom. We had the story read to us when we were children, and grow up to read it to our own brood. It’s been adapted numerous times for every medium. It is as ubiquitous as Shakespeare, and as indelibly tied to the Christmas season, ironically, as Capitalism itself. Which makes it almost impossible to review. It’s impossible to look at this […]