Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

So many monsters!

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch: A Novel by Rivka Galchen

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Cbr14bingo Monster The cover and the title of this book got my attention, and then I read the blurb. Did you know that in 1618 Johannes Kepler’s mother was accused of being a witch? (Read more here, here and here). Yes, that Johannes Kepler, the mathematician and astronomer whose works were integral to the Scientific Revolution! Author Rivka Galchen, a medical doctor by training, took this fascinating piece of information and imagined the events surrounding Katharina Kepler’s denunciation and trial. The novel is told from […]

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

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Props to my friend Aileen the Coolest Person Ever for this recommendation! How to describe this book? I think I’ve gotten so used to books with hooks or gimmicks that I found myself at odds trying to explain to other friends what exactly I’d just read and why I really hadn’t been able to put it down. The thing is, there’s not much of a gimmick here. Elizabeth Zott is a female chemist in a time when that’s not a thing. She battles sexism–unrelently, unmitigated […]

https://cannonballread.com/2022/08/lessons-in-chemistry-wicherwill/

new aspirational character alert: mad catlady with speedboat and collection of vintage pornography

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

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…and yes, she drives that boat too fast and befriends a robot! What else could I need? Once again, I am utterly in love with the newest Becky Chambers. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, a much awaited sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built, was calling my name from the second that I finished the first entry. I always need to point this out, but if this isn’t the place to do then what is; I would not have found myself in the cozy companionship […]

“This is the strange lesson of living in a pandemic: life can be tranquil in the face of death.”

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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Cannonball Read Book Square: Funky In one word: Tether Reading St. John Mandel I’m reminded of the scene in the AMAZING movie Booksmart, wherein two college-bound BFFs are determined to make up for lost time and live it up the night before their high school graduation. In one of my favorite scenes, best friends Molly and Amy are getting ready to go out and hyping each other up for their respective outfits, aggressively hurling positive affirmations at each other. “Who gave you permission to take […]

“The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past.”

The Giver by Lois Lowry

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Cannonball Read Bingo Square: Minds I have owned a copy of The Giver for quite a while and it has sat collecting dust on our bookshelf reserved for the classics. My kiddo, on a whim, picked it up and when my 13-year-old picks up something that is a classic, I generally take that as an opportunity to revisit it. (See also, failed attempt to get him to read “A Wrinkle in Time.”) When I picked it up to reread, I soon began to wonder if […]

The Passion

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

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This was the first Jeanette Winterson I read, and I remember reading it nonstop at work in college. I really did enjoy it, but I am now thinking that it was given to me by someone I had a crush on also had a big effect. It’s a truly wondrous book in so many ways, especially because it’s wildly inventive and beautifully written. The novel opens with our first passion (well, two passions). Here’s the opening sentence: “It was Napoleon who had such a passion […]



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