Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I need more stars

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

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Trigger Warning for abuse, violence, depression, suicidal thoughts, drug abuse, addiction I’ve had a copy of this book for years, knowing from its blurb and from what I’ve read about it that I would probably love it, but at 960 pages, it’s a brick and a bit intimidating to start. I finally decided to tackle it, and I finished it in less than a week. I would have finished within days if not for the pesky need for sleep and doing laundry and the like. […]

Shiver me timbers and all that good stuff

Sea of Thieves: Sea Dog's Search by Jeremy Whitley

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Sea of Thieves: Sea Dog’s Search by Jeremy Whitley and illustrated by Rhoald Marcellius is more of a 2.5 than a 2. That is not to say this graphic novel is not good, in fact, it is a lot of fun. But nothing “grabbed” me into saying “Best book.” We know the stories of female pirates proving themselves to their families and self, and the illustrations are in a traditional comic format. However, if I had known about the podcasts, shows, and the other items […]

Politics, Economy and Gender of Gaming

In Real Life by Cory Doctorow

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My review of In Real Life by Cory Doctorow has borrowed pieces from a couple online reviewers. I figured they said what I was feeling, and it’s validating to know I wasn’t the only one that wasn’t “wowed” but the book, yet still found enjoyment. I will start  with: This is not a perfect story, still, I had… fun reading it. The online world vs real world has been done before.  You can … connect on a virtual level, but it can’t replace human (…) […]

I picked the nice online images from the book

Twig by Skottie Young

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The story behind Twig by Skottie Young and Kyle Strahm is almost as interesting as the book itself. I have tried for about two years now to read it. I have had a few online reader copies, tried to order it, and other reasons kept piling up as to why I was unable to read. Finally I said, “Hello Library? Could you PLEASE get this book for me?” And they did! And I am glad I waited. I know that at the time of release, […]

“And there is nothing more dangerous than a creature who pretends to be one thing and is in truth another.”

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

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This is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth focused on Lady Macbeth. This version is split into five acts (just like the play!), with Lady Macbeth as a 17-year-old new bride of the title character. Something I found particularly interesting is that the author chose to reflect the various languages spoken in eleventh-century Scotland, so the characters have different versions of their names depending on the language used. In the book, the main character thinks of herself as Roscille, so for the sake of this review, […]

“Inconsequential Good”

Absolution by Alice McDermott

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Absolution (2023) by Alice McDermott was one of the books I picked out from NPR’s Favorite Books last year. I saw that it was about American women in Vietnam at the beginning of the Vietnam War, and figured it might be interesting. My father fought in Vietnam, but I know very little about it. The war in Vietnam felt like one of those subjects we practically skipped over at the end of U.S. History in high school, and my father rarely talked about it. The beginning of this […]



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