This is a very strange novel to finish the cannonball on. I feel like after 4 years of attempting the cannonball, I should have finished on something deep and meaningful. Instead I picked up the good, but not exactly deep, Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little, the story of a young woman named Janie Jenkins who was convicted of killing her socialite mother ten years ago. Released on a technicality, many still believe she did it and Janie herself isn’t sure what happened that night, but she is […]
Beautiful and one of the saddest books I’ve read this year
I read Still Alice based on a recommendation from a few friends. An incredibly powerful and moving novel, it impacted me immediately and has stuck with me since. Still Alice is the story of a Harvard psychology professor who finds that she is losing pieces of herself. It’s a sad and moving portrayal of a woman losing the things that defined her. When Alice can’t find her way home on a run through Harvard Square, she knows something is very wrong. Initially, she wonders if it’s menopause or […]
Absolutely Stunning
Immediately after reading Wild, I posted on facebook, tagging all the women I know who hike, who camp, who have mothers, who are imperfectly trying to make their way through the world, who have made mistakes, who have thrown themselves into life, and who are absolutely fucking magnificent. This was an incredibly and beautifully powerful book, earning every bit of praise it has been given. I say this knowing full well that there are people out there who vehemently disagree with me.I have read a few reviews […]
A resounding meh
I enjoyed Me Before You, even with it’s faults, and wanted something light after The Art of Baking Blind and the Book of Fate, so I decided to pick up Jojo Moyes’s latest, One Plus One. I wound up liking this less than Me Before You, but for entirely different reasons. The plot was similar in that it was about a woman who was somewhat down on her luck being saved by a rich man who was down on his luck in other ways. However, I found that this […]
Prepare to eat way too many pastries
Wow. This was far better than I expected it to be. Sarah Vaughan could have taken this particular plot in many different directions. She could have gotten bogged down with the different plot lines, or taken the cooking contest too far. She could have made the stories trite or silly. She could have made the solutions and consequences simple, or easy. Instead, she created 5 different and compelling storylines that tied together, not completely, not perfectly, but satisfyingly. The Art of Baking Blind managed to make me […]