Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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I read books, watch movies and occasionally make music. tilde.club/~jormis

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Love is a bourgeois construct

The Life and Loves of a She Devil by Fay Weldon

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An anti-romance, sometimes referred to as a satire, is a type of story characterized by having an apathetic or self-doubting anti-hero cast as the protagonist, who fails in the object of his journey or struggle.  (Wikipedia) Ruth Patchett lives in a nice suburb of Eden Grove. She is married with two children, a dog, a cat and a hamster. The house has two bathrooms and picture windows. It is very new. It is a good life. Unless you consider the fact neither husband nor children […]

Ex uno, multi

Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey

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A recap of the saga of nine books and short stories that comprise the Expanse saga: The mankind has spread to our solar system. We have two major players: the weary but still powerful Earth/UN as the Empire that has a sizeable excess population and the Challenger, Mars, brimful of youthful energy (with Texan accent and country music), which it directs to terraforming and building a military society. In-between, in the asteroid belt, the Belters scrape by with their own patois and a Frontier way […]

Spinsters, Bedsits, and Religion: Definitely Not The Office

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym

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A month ago I came across an article in New Yorker called When Barbara Pym Couldn’t Get Published [1]. Barbara Pym was a novelist of some modest success. She had published six books 1950-1961 before her editor dropped her quite suddenly in 1963. She had become old-fashioned. According to the article, Pym’s world is ..less a realm of hope and glory than one of modesty and mild deprivation. The “boiled chicken smothered in white sauce” that’s served to the new curate provides the same nutritional […]

Gothic Bathos

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

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All good things come to an end.  Reviewing Northanger Abbey finalizes my happy stint as the chair of the Jane Austen Book Club. While Northanger Abbey was Jane Austen’s first completed novel in 1803, it was only published posthumously together with Persuasion in 1817. The book follows 12 months in the life of 17-year-old Miss Catharine Morland who lives in a happy family with comfortable means (her father is a country clergyman). Catharine is naive as befits young ladies of her age. She likes reading […]

Hit and Miss: Persuasion and Emma

Emma by Jane Austen

Persuasion by Jane Austen

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The Jane Austen Book Club continues with a double feature: Emma and Persuasion Emma was the last book published during Jane Austen’s lifetime. Miss Emma Woodcock is a 21 years old second daughter of Mr Woodcock. She is handsome, clever, and rich – all the desirable qualities. And in Persuasion, Miss Anne Elliot is a 27 years old middle daughter of (baronet) Sir Walter Elliot. Like all other Jane Austen’s heroines Emma and Anne dwell in the countryside and lead most comfortable lives. Where the […]

Price is Right, or, Untainted Love

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

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It is a bold move from Jane Austen to introduce the first proper conflict by the two-thirds mark. I’m referring, of course, to the moment when Fanny Price commences her journey of becoming an individual with agency: her refusal to marry Mr. Crawford. Even if it displeases the mighty Sir Thomas, her uncle. Prior to this event the name of the book, Mansfield Park really was accurate: Jane Austen was writing about the place, people that live there, and events that occur. However, the heroine […]



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