Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Next Civil War (A Fiction)

The Next Civil War by Stephen Marche

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I spent almost the entire of this book trying to figure out if it’s any good or not. My issue is not actually political. A lot of the reviews seem to take offense with the idea that the most likely perpetrators of the “next civil war” will be right-wing terrorists. Well, get over it. When that happens, you’ll be so happy you won. They also mention that he’s glowing about BLM, which is simply not true. He simply states that their grievances are founded in […]

What we talk about when we talk about shame

A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself by Peter Ho Davies

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Beautiful, funny writing. Incisive, even if this is a familiar plot – picking up after boy meets girl, zooming into the marriage in the time of children. This time, the story begins with a false start and a heart breaking choice, and for these deeply introspective parents that decision recurs with intimidating frequency. Not that they have to decide to have an abortion again and again – but they are forced to consider what it means that they had an abortion again and again, even […]

(Mount) Olympus, Texas

Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann

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I was honestly torn about how I felt about this book for quite a long time. My first impression of the book was that these were pretty terrible people – and, though I do love a good dysfunctional family, and don’t always feel that you have to like the characters in a book in order to enjoy reading about them, this felt a  bit over the top. I struggled a great deal with these characters, until something clicked for me in the end (perhaps being […]

For the Girls who’ll be the Women

Bedtime Ballet by Kallie George

Stella Keeps the Sun Up by Clothilde Ewing

Pineapple Princess by Sabine Hahn

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When you have three picture books that are at best a “three each” you cannot say much about them beyond the usual what they are about, quick something about the illustrations, and if you liked it or not. But due to the fact March is Women’s History Month, these three are books you want to add to your Girl stories. Each one has delightful illustrations. They are cute, fun, and while familiar, there are modern touches to make them new and fresh. Bedtime Ballet by […]

“Archer…dressed in the evening because he thought it cleaner and more comfortable to do so”

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

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This is my first review of the year. I have been reading a lot, and enjoying what I read, but I’m just not ready to think about what I read. I was partway through The Age of Innocence when I realized this was a re-read, though from a decade or so ago. We meet Newland Archer (what a name!), a New York society gentleman in his early 20s, as he mostly sleepwalks through society – getting engaged to an appropriate ingénue, moving from home to […]

Jubilee

Jubilee by Margaret Walker

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This is novel is based on the author’s ancestors (or whatever is the best term for past relatives not that deep in the past ultimately). The story primarily follow Vyry, a mixed race woman born into slavery as the product of her white owner/father raping her mother. The story begins in Georgia before the Civil War, carries through the war, following the connections between the Black slaves and the white owners, and then spends about half or more of the rest of the novel in […]



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