Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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About esmemoria

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In my walking around life, I miss my old, blind pug (the Ancient Mariner), help amazing college students become teachers, and tie an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: esmemoria's Quick Questions interview.)

esmemoria's Reviews:

Rose is Rose is Rose is Rose

The World is Round by Gertrude Stein

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The top was further because she was so near she could not see which way it was. I have always been intimidated by Gertrude Stein. A modernist, she held salons in Paris with famous writers and artists of the day. I may have picked up a book or two of hers to scan and been scared off by her unique writing. Which is why I felt some trepidation when I picked up her book The World is Round. The book is ostensibly a children’s book, […]

Unsavory Lamb

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

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cbr13bingo / Shelfie Sitting on my shelf for many a year, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal is a humorous and disappointing novel about Jesus’ life by Christopher Moore. Jesus’ childhood friend Biff—born Levi—is resurrected and commanded by a soap-opera loving angel to write an account of Jesus’ life before the age of 30. Biff is indignant that he is never mentioned in the New Testament and strives to fill out the missing story. Jesus—called Joshua in the book—is an adolescent when the […]

How Do I Love Edward Gorey? Let Me Count the Ways

The Gashleycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey

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M is for Maud who was swept out to sea N is for Neville who died from ennui To say I love Edward Gorey is an understatement. I was introduced to his dark, hilarious drawings by an aunt who gave me a copy of The Doubtful Guest when I was about 12 years old. She was my favorite aunt; she always gave me gifts that didn’t condescend to my young age. At the time she gave me my first Gorey book, I didn’t really understand […]

Don’t Judge a Character By Its Cover

Silent Scream by Angela Marsons

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Angela Marsons’s Silent Scream is an excellent, solidly plotted murder mystery. Detective Inspector Kim Stone and her team investigate a series of murders tied to a children’s home, something that resonates for Stone due to her extensive time spent in the foster system. The beginning of the book moves briskly and gets right into the first murder. In between the main narrative, Marsons weaves in an anonymous malevolent character’s point of view in short italicized chapters. I tend to like that in my mysteries. I […]

A Brilliant Graphic Memoir

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

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I moved to San Francisco from New York in 1990. One of the ways I fell in love with the City was by voraciously reading the newspapers. There were two regular newspapers, one a morning edition and one that was published in the afternoon. There were also free papers like The Bay Guardian, similar to the Village Voice in NY. In one of the free papers–I can’t remember which now–there was a cartoon Dykes to Watch Out For, drawn by Alison Bechdel. It was funny […]

True Crime Bringing Lives to Light

I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

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Michelle McNamara’s I’ll be Gone in the Dark about the Golden State Killer (previously known as the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker) is certainly a true crime book about a vicious murderer and his victims. But it is also a story of investigators who never give up, anonymous internet detectives poring over evidence, and McNamara herself, a compassionate writer with a mind like a knife. It is a different kind of tragedy that McNamara died before her book was published and before they found the […]



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