Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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I love to read, and I love to learn. I wish I were retired so I could spend more time on my random flights of fancy. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Sophia's Quick Questions interview.)

Sophia's Reviews:

A timely book for the upcoming Olympics

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

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I saw The Favorites (2025) by Layne Fargo on some year-end, best-of lists and decided it was worth a try. It is a story loosely based on Wuthering Heights, written in the style of Daisy Jones & The Six, and based on the the competitive sport of ice dancing. Pairs figure skating was one of my favorite Olympic sports to watch back in the day, so I figured a book about ice dancing could be interesting. Katarina Shaw was obsessed with ice dancing ever since she was a kid, […]

I am no Addie LaRue; I would have given up

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

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My book club led me to yet another book I had not heard of and wouldn’t have chosen on my own. Our latest pick was The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020) by V.E. Schwab. It is long and a little slow in places (a couple of women from my book club gave up on it), but it was also well written and very original. We had a lot of good discussions about the characters and the world of the novel. Adeline (Addie) LaRue is in her […]

A childhood idol turned into a real person

Say Everything by Ione Skye

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I was probably about twelve years old when I first watched Say Anything with John Cusack and Ione Skye, and it made a deep impression on me. In fact, it shaped my goals for most of my teenage years. I still have a very clear memory of Ione Skye’s character, Diane, marking every word that she looked up in her giant dictionary. I thought she was beautiful and smart, and I wanted to be just like her. In fact, because of Diane, I was intent on becoming […]

“Just the act of falling in love was to agree to a broken heart.”

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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I’ve already read a couple of books by Taylor Jenkins Reid and generally liked them, but I think Atmosphere (2025) is my favorite (so far). I first saw Atmosphere on NPR’s Favorite books, and then my book club started talking about it too, which is why I picked it up. Atmosphere takes place in the early 1980’s at the NASA space shuttle program. We follow the women who are in NASA’s second class of astronauts to ever allow women. Joan Goodwin is an Astronomer unhappily teaching introductory classes to spoiled […]

The big one hits Portland

Tilt by Emma Pattee

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I am so excited by all of the end-of-the-year book lists coming out. I have so many books to read and so little time. I found Tilt by Emma Pattee (2025) after I saw it on both the Times and NPR’s lists. The NPR blurb about this book made it sound a little more lighthearted and fun than I found it to be. However, it did keep my interest. Annie lives in Portland. She is nine months pregnant, due any day, and picking out a crib in Ikea. She is hungry, […]

Self-help advice for taking control of your life

The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins

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I feel like I’ve read a string of self-help books lately, and I still have a couple more to go. The Let Them Theory (2024) by Mel Robbins was another recommendation from my therapist. I thought it was easy to follow, interesting to read, and had generally helpful advice. I’ve definitely been thinking about some of her recommendations and using it in my own life. Early on in her book, Robbins mentions that she’s good at distilling a lot of information into clear, easy-to-understand bites. I think […]



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