Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

sorry this review is so late…

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

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CW: homophobia galore, of course, but also familiar disappointment/lack of support on coming out (period appropriate, I suppose, but heart wrenching nonetheless) This is a hard one for me to review–it hits a bit close to home, years later and on the opposite coast. I’m so glad that it was the chosen book for AAPI month for Cannonball Read, even though I didn’t end up writing my review OR participating in time (everything lined up with when I was moving across the globe, but I […]

“… without a story, it’s all just information.”

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

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I have to start by saying I never did get around to reading A Visit From the Goon Squad, I can’t really say why – I think it came out at a time when I was not really able to prioritize reading, given little kids and jobs – there were some years when my children were quite little that I did read, but it was mostly Stephen King novels, or Shirley Jackson, or just re-reading whatever was on my bookshelf. So I missed the sibling novel, […]

The Circumscription of Women and Men

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

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In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs. Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence is a compelling look at the mores of the upper class in 1800’s New York City and particularly how such mores dictate and limit lives, particularly women’s. The story follows upper class Newland Archer, who is torn between his demure and incurious fiancée and the independent and […]

Long days, short years

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

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I read this book on recommendation from Modern Mrs. Darcy, whose book recs I usually enjoy quite a bit. I found this book to be both enjoyable, and it carried an important message. It was well written, and there were plenty of things about it that were thought provoking. You might sense a BUT here … this didn’t quite hit for me altogether. I’d say if you’re a fan of Jodi Picoult novels (which I generally am! they’re fine!) this fits within that wheelhouse. I […]

“I felt that I was now old enough to become fussy and spinsterish if I wanted to:” A Gentle Post-War Comedy of Manners

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

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This is a fast read but it has a lot of depth to it. I enjoyed it and it was the kind of book that surprises you and is counter to what you were expecting, in a good way. Excellent Women was a little outside of my normal reading pattern in that I’m not always a literary fiction type person, but this turned out to be more of a comedy of manners novel than the literary accolades suggested. And it’s good to broaden one’s reading […]

meant to read before watching, and now too lazy to watch more than some youtube clips

Normal People by Sally Rooney

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Content warning: abuse, both emotional and physical (not in the main relationship, though, from family members) I wanted to watch the well-reviewed Hulu series based on this book, but wanted to read it before I did–even though a few people had told me that the series was better. I’m not one of those purists who thinks that the original written version is always better (come @ me but I think the Heartstopper TV adaptation is superior to the comic, and there are changes the TV […]



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