Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Now the only thing I ask is that they respect the loneliness to come”

Beauty Salon by Mario Bellatin

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Beauty Salon by Mario Bellatín is a very brief book about a man who takes care of people wasting away from an unnamed disease in his beauty salon. Now known as the Terminal, the salon was once the narrator’s pride. It was a dazzling space where he and his two close friends would cut women’s hair and perform other beauty treatments. He describes being thrown out of his family home for being gay and how he built his beauty salon into a successful business. At […]

“Old people, young people. Everybody needed a cup of tea sometimes. Just an hour or two to sit and do something nice, and then they could get back to whatever it was.”

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

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I had just finished A Closed and Common Orbit and was eager to read another book by Becky Chambers.  Fortunately, my family gave me A Psalm for the Wild-Built for my birthday, so another one was on hand to be immediately dived into.  In A Closed and Common Orbit, Chambers dwells on purpose.  In a APftWB, she dives deeper into understanding what it means to have a purpose, why even have a purpose at all, and to not have a purpose, as well.  I had been delightfully […]

A tense, haunting, and beautifully written thriller

Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta

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He thought he could get them. He didn’t understand who they were, though. What they were. She could see them again and, worse, hear them, those calm voices in a beautiful, still night. Could smell the old smoke and the old blood. Then the fresh versions that followed. She prayed for her husband then, prayed that he would not meet them, would not hear them, would not smell them. It felt too late, though. She’d slept too long, and he’d made his choice too early. […]

Thank you, ElCicco!

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Thank you to the very thoughtful ElCicco for your package. Not only did I get two books I’m excited to read (John Copenhaver’s new thriller The Savage Kind and Mike Capite’s love letter to NYC Jacket Weather), I also received a lovely Pittsburgh post card AND some locally sold toffee. What a sweet gift. I hope you have the best holiday!

What the Smuck?

Lisey's Story by Stephen King

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

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While I have been COVID telecommuting, I have tried to get out in the early afternoon for a nice 45 minute walk. I’ve been listening to a bit of Stephen King while I walk — I’ve already read all of his books, so listening (even to the scary stuff) is somewhat easy and comforting. If I lose my train of thought, no big deal. The story just goes on. This year, I listened to two books I had previously read, Lisey’s Story and ‘Salem’s Lot. […]

Happy Gift Exchange to me! Thanks, faintingviolet!

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I’m excited to jump into these two books in the next few weeks. They’ll be my first two reviews of CBR22 in the new year. Books are If We Were Villains by M. L. Rios and Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. These books have been blessed by my patron saints Liz Lemon, Beyoncé, and Shea Couleé.



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