Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Catching up with three very different books

Martyr by Kaveh Akbar

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party by Edward Dolnick

Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch

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I have fallen behind on my reviews over the last few weeks, so I’m cramming the last three books I read into one review in order to catch up. These books are about as tonally different from each other as it is possible to be, so expect some whiplash. Martyr tells the story of Cyrus, an Iranian-American poet and recovering addict. Decades ago, his mother died when the plane she was on was mistakenly shot down by the United States Army. Trying to find meaning […]

Do We Ever Really Know Our Parents?

The Nights are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar

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It sometimes feels likes a writer has used their work of fiction as a cathartic exorcism of their demons. The Nights are Quiet in Tehran feels like Shida Bazyar is laying bare parts of her own upbringing as the child of political refugees from Iran living in Germany. This gives the book a warmer, more personal touch than might have been achieved by another.   This book plays with form, switching 4 times between time periods and narrators as we follow the lives of Behzad, […]

Songs for Other People’s Weddings by David Levithan and Jens Lekman

Songs for Other People's Weddings by David Levithan

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Wow this was bad. I don’t even know what to say. This did not need to be 301 pages. I started this book last year and it became my bathtub book because hey at least it didn’t make me sleepy, I was too busy raging and soaking. The entire concept of this book is that a man does not listen to his girlfriend and it goes on for 300 pages. That’s it. And there are songs that are sung at weddings. And I just wish […]

I don’t know why I love epistolary novels so much

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

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I’ve always enjoyed a good epistolary novel, and The Correspondent (2025) by Virginia Evans is no different. I saw The Correspondent on a number of year-end, best-of lists and decided to give it a try. I figured an old lady writing a bunch of letters would be a slow, contemplative novel. I was wrong. Although The Correspondent was contemplative, the story was surprisingly compelling. I had a hard time putting this book down. The Correspondent begins with 73-year-old Sybil Van Antwerp writing to her brother, who lives in France. It is 2012 […]

Tick Follows Tock Follows Tick Follows Tock: Late Stage Rushdie

The Eleventh Hour by Salman Rushdie

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  Salman Rushdie has always played with time, but as his own clock starts to wind down it sees him more reflective than before. There are 5 stories in all, 3 novellas, and 2 short stories and 2 of these have already appeared in print in the New Yorker. Most of these stories were written after Rushdie’s very intimate brush with death in 2022 and the emotional weight of this event and his life can be felt through them all. It feels like his most […]

It’s a Not So Wonderful Life

Vigil by George Saunders

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In a sprawling Dallas mansion, 87-year-old oil company executive K.J. Boone is dying. In addition to his wife and staff, there are some unseen attendants in the room for his final hours. One is Jill “Doll” Blaine. Since dying herself years ago, Jill has been elevated in the afterlife, and now is sent to accompany dying people to provide comfort at the end. She is not expecting any other visitors of her kind, so she is surprised when a Frenchman barges into the room, demanding […]



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