Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Simenon (3-4)

Maigret and the Ghost by Georges Simenon

Maigret and Monsieur Charles by Georges Simenon

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Maigret and the Ghost “It was just after one o’clock in the morning when the light went out in Maigret’s office.” As Maigret is leaving his office one night he receives word that his friend and colleague Inspector Lognon, he begins appearing in the books about 35 books previous to this one has been shot twice and is clinging to life. As Maigret asks questions and begins to investigate, he learns that Lognon was shot outside the apartment that is mostly associated with prostitution, and […]

Simon Rich (1)

Spoiled Brats by Simon Rich

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“They buried my wife in a shoebox in Central Park.” This is the third collection of short stories by Simon Rich I’ve read, and it contains the longer story that was adapted into the screenplay for “American Pickle” which I have not seen, but will talk about soon. The collection begins with a kind of story that Rich writes a lot, a rendering of a semi-autobiographical story (or one in which he plays a role) but from a much different perspective. This story is a […]

Eliza Has Monsters

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

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Eliza has external and internal monsters. She has the external high school kind of monsters who like to pick on and reject anyone who seems different. She has the internal monsters of anxiety and insecurity. And of course, she has the monsters that she has created for her webcomic. Eliza is the creator of a highly popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. She publishes under a pseudonym, and very few people in her life know that she and her nom de plume LadyConstellation are the same person. […]

I liked this weird little gremlin book.

The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay

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To be clear, the book isn’t about gremlins, I’m just calling it a gremlin book because it’s weird and small and has claws but is also kind of harmless and laughable in the right light. Also also, gremlin is a fun word to use. This book is impossible to *really* talk about without spoilers, so I’m going to have a pretty big spoiler section and a smaller non-spoiler section in this review. I will try to keep the spoiler section relatively spoiler-free in the sense […]

“When it came to equality, 1952 was a real disappointment.”

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

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Lessons in Chemistry (2022) by Bonnie Garmus is on NPR’s Best Books List, but I’d seen the title all over the place. The pink cover with the woman on the front made it look like a romance novel, but the NPR description sounded a lot more fraught than what you would expect. Initially, it didn’t sound very appealing, and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to read it. I did become a little more interested when it was recently recommended by a book club friend. But […]

Learn from each other

Me + Tree by Alexandria Giardino

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CBR15Passport, different country (illustrators from Italy and the young girl is from “other country” than where she is living) A young girl, in a fantastic way, learns about an old tree, now a stump, but using her imagination and the knowledge she has of being alone and unseen. Having moved to this strange city, she, and the tree commune to show each other how the world is a beautiful place, and how to help each other and the world around them. The result is how […]



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