- Book 134: Joyland by Stephen King – 3 stars. Murder-mystery with a ghost, but really, it’s a coming of age story.
- Book 135: Defending Jacob by William Landay – 3 stars. A novel about the legal system and a family’s reaction when their son put on trial for murder.
- Book 136: No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong – 4 stars. Jaime Vegas narrates. Jeremy finally shows some interest.
- Book 137: The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman – 4 stars. Stories and vignettes from a struggling English language paper in Rome.
- Book 138: Time and Again by Jack Finney – 1 stars. Ugh, horrible. Includes me ranting about people glamorizing the past. I hate it when people do that.
- Book 139: Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong – 3 stars. Good story but I don’t love Hope Adams.
- Book 140: Men of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong – 4 stars. Who would have thought that Clayton would be such a good narrator? Also, basically, the life story of Jeremy.
- Book 141: Tales of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong – 3 stars. A mix of stories, some more interesting than others. The interesting ones include background on how Eve and Kristof, and Elena and Clayton became couples.
- Book 142: A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra – 3 stars. A story about war torn Chechnya and its after effects.
- Book 143: Daughters Who Walk This Path by Yejide Kilanko – 4 stars. A story about growing up female in Nigeria, a country that is both modern and very traditional
- Book 144: Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong – 3 stars. New characters, weird developments, and more Hope.
- Book 145: The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England… by Ian Mortimer – 3 stars. Exactly what the title implies, a travel guide to the 14th century that puts history into a whole different context.
Cannonball Read V
A bunch of Pajibans reading and reviewing and honoring AlabamaPink.
Slow down, woman, I refuse to let you beat me to the triple Cannonball. That was never part of the plan here. I’m currently reading book nr 155 (which you gave me), and your absolutely monumental blogging efforts over the last week have inspired me to make a real effort tomorrow (if I’m well enough, for two days I’ve been too feverish to look at a backlit screen).
No seriously, excellent work. You’ve clearly developed some sort of superhuman blogging ability. But please slow down now. Glad to see you blazing through the Women of the Otherworld series, though, and liking it. Hope you like the final concluding “trilogy”.
Don’t worry, I’m caught up on reviews now, I’m hoping to make it to 150 for the year … I am probably going to go through my school syllabus and double check if anything we read could count as being over 100 pages after all.
I might be leading in quantity, but I have nothing on you two where quality is concerned. You are the true winners of Cannonball Read 5. And I hope your health allows you to hit that Triple Cannonball before the year is out, Malin!
Thanks! I may not always agree with your reviews, but I think the thought and time you spend on them definitely makes up for any “quality” the books may lack.
I was more downplaying the quality of my reviews themselves in relation to yours, but it is also true that I’m not exactly reading doorstoppers all the time either. Heh. I do have two in the 1000 page range that I’ll most likely begin Cannonball Read 6 with (Swan Song and The Stand), but I’ve never been the sort of person who has the patience and is willing to put in the time needed to read books of that length on a regular basis. I prefer my stories short and concise.
Sorry for misunderstanding – I saw quantity and thought number of books. I know you consider King to be in your top three so is The Stand a matter of you picking one up you hadn’t gotten around to before or a reread? Have you checked out Cronin’s The Passage? Something about his world building reminded me of King.
It’s on me for not doing the best job of wording it. What I should’ve said is, “I might have you beat in terms of quantity of reviews written/books read, but you two have the edge on me in terms of the quality of reviews.” The Stand is one I haven’t gotten around to yet, mostly due to its length. I’ve seen the TV miniseries, which I liked, and all signs point towards me liking the book, but it’s not easy committing to 1,000+ pages. The books I usually read vary from 200-300 pages, so that’s 3-5 books worth of reading.
I haven’t read The Passage either, but I’ll be sure to give it a look. Thanks for the recommendation! 🙂