Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Elder LOTR/Holmes fan girl/writer since forever. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: elderberrywine's Quick Questions interview.)

elderberrywine's Reviews:

Definitely one of the oddest childhood memoirs I’ve read

Germs: A Memoir of Childhood by Richard Wollheim

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Bingo Square Rep But not what you think.  Let Wollheim explain. “. . . such was the hope, I would, in saying one thing after another after another after another, each with a grain more of truth to it than its predecessor, come to spill the beans: I might, if only the ear stayed steady, and that was another hope, find myself, with one broad archaic gesture, scattering the germs.” Wollheim was born in England between the two wars to a German Jewish theatrical producer […]

Arteriosclerosis can begin as early as age 20, and other fun facts.

The thing about life is that one day you'll be dead. by David Shields

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Bingo Square  Free!  (doesn’t say I kept it :P) Well, now. See, the thing is that I have a verrrrrry long list of books to read, that I generally order from my county library. L.A. County Library is amazingly extensive. I’m rarely disappointed. But this list was started in the 1980’s, and all that is on the list is the title and the author, so when the book arrives for me to pick up, it’s nearly always a surprise. (No fair doing any research, that’s […]

TFW The Trenches of WWI Beat Life at Oxford, Any Day

Good-Bye to All That by Robert Graves

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Bingo Square Shelfie Good-Bye to All That is rather a “Boy’s Own” version of, Robert Graves’ (the Irish-British poet) account of his public school and war years – WWI, that is.  Schooling started at Charterhouse School and continued at Oxford, and Graves did not enjoy any bit of it.  As soon as the War started, Graves signed up, as an officer, and never looked back.  War, it turned out, was far more his element. Graves was one of the several British poets involved in WWI, […]

Respect the Animal, Dammit.

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

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Bingo square, Fauna I spent a week in Central Florida (pre-Disney era) one summer, many decades back, when I was 9 years old.  It was memorable.  From the gators roaming the backyards in the evening, to the constant state of sogginess I was in, even as a child, to the amazing show at Weeki Wachee wherein young women with amazing breath-holding skills played at being mermaids in a giant tank.  All this is to say that this book could only have been written about that […]

Accept Vassar professorship or head off the the boonies on a dodgy errand? What’s a poor girl to do?

His Illegal Self by Peter Carey

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Bingo square – Travel I’ve read one of Peter Carey’s books (Oscar and Lucinda) awhile back (long enough ago it isn’t on my Goodreads list) but what I remembered about reading it was that the first two-thirds were What am I even reading, and then it clicked in and I devoured the rest.  So, readers, let us say I was prepared, and buckled in for the long ride. All right, those of you about my age certainly remember Patty Hearst.  Now let’s just say she […]

Call Me Domina.

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

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The setting is an exclusive girl’s school, set next to an icy lake in upstate New York, beset by a string of student suicides.  Or are they?  And how is it that pages of the new Latin teacher’s student journal, written and lost during her senior year, suddenly starting to show up?  Wait, now, this is sounding familiar.  Didn’t I just read this? Checking back through my goodreads list, I realize that I am thinking of Arcadia Falls, and it’s by the same author!  But […]



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