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:

Murder Makes Growing Old Fun

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

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Another Cannonballer recently read The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (review here), and it sounded like my kind of frothy mystery mixed with real characters. The Thursday Murder Club is made up of residents of a senior living community in England. The four club members are distinctly drawn and altogether delightful. Osman makes them three dimensional, despite the jolly tone, and they each have heartbreaks of one or another. One of the things I loved about the book is how fun it made senior […]

Roar! We are But a Speck in Time

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

by 6 Comments

Tell me I’m not alone: sometimes I’m sitting somewhere, minding my own business, when the thought intrudes, “I can’t believe that dinosaurs were real.” It just seems so impossible. Surely they are made-up movie creatures. How can such amazing beings have once roamed (and dominated) the world? Well, Steve Brusatte’s The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of Their Lost World tells you all about it. And I loved every second of it. Beware: this book will give you an existential crisis […]

The Courage to Start Running

The Courage to Start by John Bingham

by 2 Comments

I found The Courage to Start by John Bingham an incredibly inspiring read. Bingham is well known for his writings about runners who are “penguins.” A penguin is a runner that might be slow, have an unusual stride, is often in the far back of the starting line, but is fulfilled. Bingham talks less about the technical aspects of running and more about the psychological and emotional growth that comes from regular practice. While he doesn’t frame it as such, he has a Buddhist way […]

Books in Their Time

Beast in View by Margaret Millar

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Margaret Millar’s mystery, Beast in View, initially puzzled me. The language used and various formalities made the setting sound like the 19th century, only there were modern features like cars. It also reminded me of English mysteries set in small towns where everyone knows each other, but this was set in the sprawling LA area. The plot moved slow as the mystery unfolded, and seemed derivative of other more famous books and short stories. A woman in her 30s, Helen Clarvoe, is being stalked by […]

Hot Kylo Ren, Toxic Relationships, and Dull Writing

The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster

The Last Jedi by Jason Fry

The Rise of Skywalker by Rae Carson

by 21 Comments

I am obsessed with Adam Driver. If you are not obsessed with Adam Driver, I know not your constitution. I’ve become obsessed with the Star Wars movies episodes IX through XI and the sexy, tortured, full lipped character of Kylo Ren, who is the villain. I originally wrote “hero” by mistake, which shows how twisted my love is. So enamored of Kylo, Rey, and the movies in general, I somewhat abashedly bought the books based on the movies. And boy do they kind of suck. […]

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

The Steel Kiss by Jeffrey Deaver

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I didn’t like the last Jeffrey Deaver book I reviewed, yet I went right ahead and picked up The Steel Kiss. This is another strangely inert suspense novel with multiple plots that don’t have much to do with each other. I’ve read a ton of Deaver’s books and every time I read a more recent one I hope it will have the same fast pace, ingenious plotting, and stellar twists of his earlier work. It’s not that the plots are so terrible, but they are […]



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