Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I know something no one else in the world knows.”

The Forever Witness by Edward Humes

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As a case on its own this wouldn’t have been as interesting, but combined with the focus on DNA technology and how it’s changing, this really worked for me. The murders of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook in 1987 went unsolved until 2018, when the cold case detective, Jim Scharf, decided to use genetic genealogy on the case, and suddenly within weeks they had a suspect and an arrest. But the suddenness of events in 2018 was based on decades of cold case detecting, […]

An Apprenticeship: I tried

An Apprenticeship by Clarice Lispector

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mood music: Só Tinha De Ser Com Você – elis regina and tom jobim I will accept that I am in the minority regarding this book. Based on the GoodReads score and the consensus on social media, I guess I don’t understand art. Clarice Lispector was a very talented writer, the prose itself is almost poetic in the way that it flows throughout the story, but thematically I could not get on board with this book. At first, I thought it was the translation from […]

“It hits her full force that her mother is a mystery to her. She could have anything folded away inside her silence.”

The Hunter (Cal Hooper, #2) by Tana French

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Who am I kidding, this is five stars. It didn’t hit me as hard as previous books of hers have, but there is no fault here. She’s just a master of character and atmosphere, and she knows how to seed a twist in such a way that it has thematic value, not just shock value. Like its predecessor, The Searcher, this is a slow burn character study of a mystery. Also like The Searcher, this is a mystery where the investigation isn’t even the third most important […]

There’s no predicting when a heart will open up

Change of Heart by Kate Canterbary

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In Change of Heart, Drs Whitney Aldritch and Meri Mercer hold themselves to the highest standards of behavior except for the two weeks a year when they dress up, crash weddings, and shed their very adult, important responsibilities. They make up names, never crash a small wedding, always bring a gift, and never sleep with someone in the wedding party. Whit breaks that rule at the last crashed wedding of the summer when she locks eyes with the Best Man at a very large, fancy […]

People and things we hold dear

Loose Threads: A Story about Me, Mom, and Dad by Airien Ludin

Boots by Elizabeth Pulsford

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An unpleasant subject is the subject of death and grief. However, it happens, and a good way to talk about it is with a story. I will say grab two large, soft, boxes of tissues and you will need them, but you won’t regret trying out the books below. (Both were read via online reader copies.) Loose Threads: A Story about Me, Mom, and Dad written and illustrated by Airien Ludin (due mid/late October 2024) is a story about how a young girl has everything […]

How I used weltschmerz to inspire my reviews

P Is for Palestine : A Palestine Alphabet Book by Golbarg Bashi

The Many Problems of Rochel-Leah by Jane Yolen

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Currently the world events should be causing us all weltschmerz (thank you to the word of the day at our morning meeting). It means “world pain” (or a feeling of sadness about the state of the world. Melancholy or world weariness). And I am naive enough to believe that if we start reading about the people involved, it can show us how we are not different from each other, but how our similarities should be bringing us together.  Like P Is for Palestine : A […]



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