Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Evil and the Mask

The Evil and the Mask by Fuminori Nakamura

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The protagonist of this novel grows up in a kind of cult (formed by his father) where he is told at some point that he was born to be a cancer on the world. This is not clearly spelled out for a very long time what exactly this means. But it’s a terrible and abusive cult and system nonetheless. Along with an adopted sister, he plots to and eventually kills his father and escapes. He grows up, changes his face through plastic surgery, and tries […]

The Unvanquished

The Unvanquished by William Faulkner

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If someone is ever interesting in getting into Faulkner, you could very well start with this book. I still think the best book to start with is actually As I Lay Dying because it primes you for Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury, but this is a good introduction into the ideas and themes that carry throughout most of his work. It’s also, I think, the only book where he tackles the war head-on and specifically the war and the aftermath during Reconstruction. […]

Frenchman’s Creek

Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier

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I don’t know how OG this novel is, but it’s a sexy pirate adventure romp from the 1940s by our beloved Daphne du Maurier. You’ll be surprised to find that this book takes in Cornwall….and well, we find Lady Dona, part of the court in London getting so bored that she once dressed like a man to tool around the city and commit crimes. So she returns to her country estate to find a curious state of affairs. Her house is filthy and the new […]

“Books contain everything worth knowing, except what ultimately matters.”

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

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  This is a book about books, and bodies, and babies. It is a book about the things that haunt us – the things that remain, that refuse to die, so that we have to ask ourselves what purpose they are serving. This is also a book that takes place for the most part over the course of a year that begins in November 2019 – so you know what else this is a book about. The main character of this novel is Tookie, an […]

“Her death hit in waves. Not a flood, but water lapping steadily at her ankles. You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.”

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

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In one word: Clever Accolades have poured in for this book: nominated for a number of literary awards, Good Morning America Book Club selection, picked as a “book of the year” on numerous lists (including Barack Obama’s), and the “one book one community read” for my local book club. The last accolade is what swayed me to pick it up as I’m a loyal participant of the library book club. I was hesitant because we read Bennett’s “The Mothers” four years ago and I did […]

Everyone Sucks Here

All I Want by Darcey Bell

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Every once in a while, I read a blurb for a new book and put a hold on it through the library. Most of the time, I completely forget I’ve done this until the book shows up on my desk. So All I Want showed up on my desk, and I had absolutely no recollection of why I wanted to read it. The premise is interesting enough: pregnant woman and her Broadway producer husband buy spooky old house in the country. Even better: spooky old […]



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