Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Fiat.Luxury's Reviews:

I should have loved this but I didn’t…?

The Scar (New Crobuzon #2) by China Miéville

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The Scar is the second of the New Crobuzon series by China Mieville, but you certainly don’t need to read the first (Perdido Street Station) to understand or enjoy the second.  This is a long book with a lot going on!  Let’s do a quick summary. Bellis Coldwine, our complicated protagonist, is a professional translator on a ship from New Crobuzon voluntarily going into exile after the events of Perdido Street Station. Her plans immediately collapse as she finds herself “press-ganged” by pirates onto a […]

Baby’s first Proust

Swann in Love by Marcel Proust

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Last week, on a road trip, I thought, “I am turning 43 on Monday and I have never read Proust” So I Googled “which Proust to start with” and the internet told me that Swann in Love is the place to start.  This novella can stand alone, but it is actually a section of Swann’s Way, which in turn is the first volume of Proust’s famous In Search of Lost Time. The plot is pretty straightforward: Swann, a high society bougie fellow in fin-de-siecle Paris, […]

The woods will trick you.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

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I read and enjoyed The Unseen World a few years ago, and then sort of stopped paying attention to Liz Moore until someone at work mentioned that she was reading God of the Woods and I was like “Liz Moore, sounds familiar??” I was delighted to 1. remember how much I enjoyed The Unseen World, and 2. discover new books from Liz Moore! Wow! I generally do not like “coming of age” books because I am grumpy and I think few people write about that […]

Short and sweet, with great illustrations

The Dragon of Og by Rumer Godden

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Our 2025 read-aloud journey continues! I found this one thanks to a list along the lines of, “If you liked The Hobbit…” We read it in one afternoon (it’s very short), and both kids give it two thumbs up. The titular dragon has a lovely home under a pool in a river belonging to Lord of Tundergarth, a home found for him by his thoughtful mother. He is a shy, quiet dragon who eats only one bullock every 2 or 3 weeks, from the cattle […]

A good book for the right reader

Travel Light by Naomi Mitchinson

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When my daughter asked “Are there any girls in this story?” during our reading of The Hobbit, I set out to find a book with girls and dragons where the girl isn’t just along for the ride. I came across Naomi Mitchison. I wouldn’t be surprised if other Cannonballers are familiar with Mitchison, but I had never heard of her! She was an extremely prolific (over 90 books!) contemporary of Tolkein, who, among other things: …was able to write anywhere, which helped because – as […]

The Great Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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I was watching a bunch of kids last week and after a full morning at the pool there was a moment of quiet as they all became engrossed in their various screens. I didn’t want to disturb the peace and I also didn’t want to do chores, and I couldn’t find my Kindle, so I reached over the bookshelf and I picked up the dog-eared copy of The Great Gatsby that I purchased in approximately 1999 – I was delighted to see my youthful handwriting […]



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