Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I am Quiet and Thinking too

I Am Thinking My Life by Allysun Atwater

I Am Quiet : A Story for the Introvert in All of Us by Andie Powers

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If you are a quiet and/or introverted person you have been asked, at least once, some form of the “Why are you quiet?” question. Now, I wish I had thought/known to reply, “Why are you loud?” You see, sometimes yes, people are shy, but sometimes we are just quiet. We do not need to be flashy or bold or center of attention. We like seeing the wonders of the world around us. And with I Am Thinking My Life and I Am Quiet: A Story […]

Come for the gratuitous torture porn. Stay for the randy sex scenes. 

Birdman by Mo Hayder

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Weirdly enough, Goodreads gave me Calvin and Hobbes in their other-readers-also-enjoyed-selection. And I get it. There is never a bad time for Calvin and Hobbes, but I definitely need some eye bleach after this one.  London, 1999. During construction work on an empty lot, the dead body of a woman is found. Her body is severely decomposed and it takes the police a while to identify her. More bodies are found. They all belong to strippers, prostitutes, drug addicts – people who are loved by […]

Tom Wolfe (the recent one)

Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

From Bauhaus to Our House by Tom Wolfe

Radical Chic by Tom Wolfe

Mau-mauing the Flak Catchers by Tom Wolfe

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Bonfire of the Vanities – 5/5 Stars This novels begins with a press conference given by the mayor of New York. During the press conference, the mayor is constantly heckled by local Black activists, until he is booed off stage. This moment sets up to see various motifs and throughlines of this novel. From there, we’re introduced to our primary players, specifically three men of different backgrounds (although all white, educated, and at middle class): Sherman McCoy is a 40ish Wall street bonds salesman (bonds […]

Road Trip Romance

No Rings Attached by Rachel Lacey

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Lia is on the hunt for a fake girlfriend to go to her brother’s wedding with her, and her best friend Rosie offers up her childhood friend Grace as an option. Sparks fly when the two meet, but Grace has a complicated past and is wary of relationships. This is the second book in the series, but reads perfectly well as a stand-alone. Though the story starts off with the fake-dating trope, things quickly heat up between the couple until they enter a complicated relationship […]

Not everything needs to be a mystery

First Cut by Judy Melinek and TJ Mitchell

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First Cut  is a debut medical mystery from the husband and wife writing team of Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner. Our main character, Dr. Jessie Teska, is (we assume) heavily based on Judy Melinek’s experience as an ME for Los Angeles and San Francisco. Jessie has left her job at the LA Medical Examiner’s office under something of a cloud, and has just started a new position in San Francisco. While contending with heavy workload, old and […]

The Centaur and Of the Farm

The Centaur by John Updike

Of the Farm by John Updike

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The Centaur 5/5 The Centaur is John Updike’s novel follow up to Rabbit, Run, and if you’ve read that novel, and any of the subsequent ones, you’d recognize just how much of a departure (in some ways) this novel is from those. But John Updike has always had some experimental elements in his fiction, even if it doesn’t permeate all of his fiction. In any given story collection, you’d find a few “out there” stories. Taken purely on plot, this novel is not all that […]



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