Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

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Trigger warning: Rape I have to say that I really enjoyed this novel, but after a while it dragged for me. I loved the characters of Elizabeth and Calvin, but the book started to feel flat to me after [incident] and then it just felt a bit like it spun it’s wheels til we synched up with how Elizabeth got her cooking show. And I won’t lie, Elizabeth is hard to like at times while reading. I think that Garmus was going for her being […]

Sad Gay Bois

Role Model (Game Changers #5) by Rachel Reid

The Long game (Game Changers #6) by Rachel Reid

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

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I don’t know how I ended up reading so many books about gay men this year (and I still have Song of Achilles on my TBR, so go figure) but by and large I’m enjoying myself, so whatever.    The Long Game (Rachel Reid) ***½ Shane and Ilya are back! Everyone’s favourite gay hockey players have moved from casual hookups to being in an actual, honest-to-God relationship – one that they still have to keep hidden from everyone because the media still pitches them as […]

Accept the things you cannot change or change the things you cannot accept?

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

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The Memory Police is an unsettling novel. The descriptions I read in advance made it sound a bit like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451. It is a dystopian novel, and it does involve the authoritarian suppression of knowledge and personal freedom, but while I think of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 as “political” science fiction, The Memory Police is not exactly that. The most disturbing acts of suppression in The Memory Police come from within the people themselves. The story is set on an island where some […]

Lost in the woods

Heartwood by Amity Gaige

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Heartwood (2025) by Amity Gaige is yet another book that I originally saw on NPR’s Favorite Books List. It is about a woman who goes missing on the Appalachian Trail (AT) and the search to find her. Heartwood sounded like something I would like, so I got it from my library back in December. But I was about to do some solo backpacking and camping, and I wisely decided I didn’t want to read a book about a missing hiker while I was sitting alone […]

A Wonderful Western

Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison

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Are you in the mood for a Western with a lady protagonist? Are you a horse girl at heart? Do you love the sweeping vistas of Old Hollywood Westerns but wish there was a little more exploration of patriarchy? Do you love a fully realized girl character using her grit to get things done? Did you enjoy the movie Slow West? Whiskey When We’re Dry is the book for you.  The story is told by Jessilyn Harney, who starts out with her brother and dad, […]

Real Americans

Real Americans by Rachel Khong

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Well it’s mid-May so I guess I better start writing reviews. I read this back in January and liked it ok, and now that I’m recalling it to write this review, I also think I like it ok! It’s not one that I think about frequently, but I enjoyed reading it and discussing it with friends.  The book is split into three sections. The first is about Lily Chen, a somewhat aimless Chinese-American young lady who has a pretty ok internship in NYC in 1999. […]



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