Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Bitch is Back

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Once the best tennis player in the world, Carrie Soto smashed records and claimed Grand Slam titles, but when her knee began giving her trouble, she retired, leaving it all behind. Or so she thought. Now there’s a new phenom on the court, Nicki Chan. She’s coming for Carrie’s record, so Carrie decides to come out of retirement to defend her title. She’s 37 years old, and if she wins she’ll be the oldest player do to so. But her body isn’t quite what it […]

The Duke and the Opera Diva

After Dark with the Duke by Julie Anne Long

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Mariana Wylde arrives at the Grand Palace at the Thames only seconds after curfew, dripping wet and terrified, since she escaped her own lodgings because a literal angry mob blocked her residence. The talented opera singer, dubbed “the Harlot of Haywood Street” by the press after two rich, young noblemen fought a duel for her favour (something she very much didn’t want them to) and one of them nearly died. Her reputation is in tatters and she’s almost broke but begs the proprietresses of the […]

Monsters and Men

It's Alive by Julian David Stone

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Fresh of the success of Dracula, Universal’s 23-year-old head of production Carl Laemmle, Jr. is looking for another hit to solidify his position at the studio. He believes he’s found just the ticket in an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel, Frankenstein. Unfortunately for Junior, his father and the studio’s founder Carl Laemmle, Sr. does not agree. Over the course of several weeks in the summer of 1931, Junior tries to put the finishing touches on the production of Frankenstein. There are still little […]

Not quite what I was looking for

Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

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Another day, another book I found on NPR’s best books list. Funny You Should Ask (2022) by Elissa Sussman is a contemporary romance novel involving a super star stud of an actor and the reporter who interviewed him. Chani Horowitz grew up in Los Angeles and would love to prove herself as a “real” writer, although for the moment she’s thrilled that she can [barely] support herself with her writing. She gets assigned to write a flattering piece on Gabe Parker, before he begins his starring role in […]

Feminist musketeers

All For One by Lillie Lainoff

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I first saw One For All (2022) by Lillie Lainoff on NPR’s Best Books List, I was intrigued, but a little unsure. It looked like a young adult, feminist retelling of the Three Musketeers, but the protagonist was plagued by dizziness. I was curious how she would be able to fight and hopeful that the book would be good. The beginning of the book definitely drew me in. Tania de Batz is sixteen years old, living in a small, French town with her mother and […]

More Can Happen Without Mobile Phones

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

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Best for: Those who enjoy a well done love triangle that doesn’t consume the main character. In a nutshell: In the late 90s, writer Casey is working in a restaurant, trying to finish a novel six years in the making, and processing the recent sudden death of her mother. Worth quoting: “I think of all the people playing roles, getting further and further away from themselves, from what moves them, what stirs them all up inside.” “You don’t realize how much effort you’ve put into […]



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