Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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No Sir, I Just Didn’t Like It

Flesh by David Szalay

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More often than I’d like to admit, on a Friday night, I’ll turn on the Sportsball, and enjoy some bubbles and a packet of potato chips for dinner.  Compelling eating – once you pop, and all that – but ultimately nutritionless, completely bad for me. I consumed Flesh over the course of a late afternoon, all in one sitting, not unlike those potato chips.  I walked away feeling the same dearth of depth and sustenance.  I’m struggling with how to approach reviewing it, because I […]

The (No Spoilers) Spoils of Poynton

The Spoils of Poynton by Henry James

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The Spoils of Poynton … should have been a short story rather than a novel. One can (almost) see the whole plot in the first few chapters. The simple set-up is this – Mrs. Gereth has lovingly and carefully collected art and antiques her entire adult married life with her husband. After his death it is discovered that Mr. Gereth has bequeathed the whole kit and caboodle, along with the stately home she has lived in her entire married life, to their only son Owen, […]

It’s Not That Deep, Except That It Is

Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia

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Last week I sat down to read Iman Hariri-Kia’s new novel, Female Fantasy. I stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish it, and I don’t want to review it so much as just hand it out. You get a copy, and you get a copy, and you and you and you get copies. Everybody on BookTok gets a copy. Most importantly, everybody who’s ever looked down their nose at romance in general or romantasy in particular gets a copy.  Everyone can read it, have whatever […]

Up in the Air

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

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Marian Graves and her twin brother Jamie get off to a rough start in life, with their sea captain father going to jail for rescuing them and himself instead of going down with the ship. Sent off to live with a drunken painter of an uncle, they grow up largely independent, wandering the hills of Montana. Marian’s path in life is sealed after she sees a barnstorming plan fly over her head one day while she’s wandering through the woods. Determined to fly, Marian works […]

The Bloody Chamber

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

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I recently decided to re-read The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (it was my choice for my book group). It was as fun as I remembered. Carter’s sexy takes on traditional fairy tales like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “Puss in Boots” is at times over-the-top in its prose, humor, and horror – which suits her feminist takes on damsels in all sorts of distress perfectly. She delivers a great vampire tale, “The Lady of the House of Love,” too.  But I think […]

“The best way to go through life is to be a major donor of kindness”

Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas

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Bingo: I am counting this book for the “Diaspora” space on my bingo, since it centers on the author’s experience as a member of the Iranian diaspora. This was a memoir covering Firoozeh Dumas’ life, from her family’s move from Iran to California when she was 7, up through her teenage years and young adulthood. She writes about her experiences with American food (hot dogs are pretty gross, if you think about it), her family vacations to American tourist sites, her disastrous stint at summer […]



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