Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Medieval Mean Girls

Matrix by Lauren Groff

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I both do and do not understand how Matrix could possibly have made it onto “Best Books” lists for 2021. I hated the narrative style of first person present combined with free indirect discourse with a touch of narrative omniscience. I do not enjoy first person present narration in the first place and the ambiguity and unbalance between knowing what Marie thinks and feels, but also displaying knowledge of things Marie does not know (or at least not yet) just did not work for me. […]

Can’t believe I’m saying this, but… Meh.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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Aw man. I was so excited for this one. It’s been on my wish list since it came out. I haven’t read anything else by Andy Weir, but the reviews were fantastic and the premise was cool.  It’s been a few days since I finished Project Hail Mary, and I’ve been putting off this review, hoping I’d like it more upon reflection. That didn’t happen, and now I’ve got to put it into words. What it boils down to is that the narrator drove me […]

Melania Trump Fanfiction

Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak

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(“I felt helpless,” she said. “Here it is, I thought. This is what the bargain comes down to. This is your destiny, Lara. You will be a part of this, this tragedy. And there is nothing you can do about it. Because you chose this.”) Sofie, a former White House correspondent, is astonished to be chosen to be the biographer of the mysterious First Lady Lara Caine. As Lara tells her story, Sofie comes to realize that the secrets she’s spilling out could be ruinous […]

I Truly Do Not Understand What I Read

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

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The first movie I ever took my kiddo to the theater to see was the DreamWorks film, Home – with Jim Parsons and Rihanna voicing the main characters. Years later, our family still adores this movie and I tear up in the same spot hundreds of viewings later.Turns out, this film is based on a book – The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex. Alrighty, let’s dig in! I’m all for source material!I just finished this 400 page… scifi? sci-comedy? YA scifi-comedy experience and […]

The pandemic perfectly realized as prose

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

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Somehow I’ve lasted this long (32 years) without having read a Jodi Picoult novel. I recognize the name, having heard it spoken so highly of throughout the years, but couldn’t place it to a single book. Looking at her bibliography, only My Sister’s Keeper pops for me as a recognizable name. But I saw this one at Target, was hooked by the opening lines describing Diana watching her father restore the zodiac ceiling in the main hall of Grand Central Terminal (“When I was six […]

Misery Porn of the Month

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

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For my birthday (January 19th), my fiancee surprised me with a year’s subscription to Book of the Month. From January’s options, I chose Black Cake, partly because it spoke to me the most, but mostly it was chosen at random for the thrill of it. A couple days later, I had my book and at least a half dozen emails from BOTM, including one suggesting the app and another hours later asking if I’d downloaded the app yet. In other words: pros, fast delivery, and […]



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