Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

what a saga (ha) and unexpectedly delightful

The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley

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CW: assault A starkly different recommendation–from The Pale King to this, which couldn’t be more different if you’d tried. There’s more plot in a single paragraph of the latter than in all of the former’s million odd pages…and this book isn’t short by any means. This is a fictionalized reconstruction of the Norwegian settlers of Greenland of the fourteenth century, written in the style of one of those old sagas originally passed down through oral tradition. It’s actually quite hard to sell this one, and I think […]

two shorter reviews as I try to get ahead of the queue

The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr

Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot

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The Prophets A recommendation by the delightful Evin, who did indeed tell me to read this many eons before I actually did! If, like me, you found it hard to pick this book up, then perhaps this review is for you. This book is: – not as trauma porn-y as Whitehead at his peak (The Underground Railroad or looking at you, The Nickel Boys) – not a glossing over of America’s worst sin – beautifully written – not easy per se to get through but not a […]

whoo women can be terrible too! #girlboss

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

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What a WEIRD book, and yet another in the long list of books that could best be deemed “female friends who should really not be friends anymore.” Reva, you deserve so much better! Narrator, I don’t think you deserve worse but you definitely need someone different in your life to zhush it up. It’s becoming a bit of a cliche that every novel I read immediately prompts a slew of “oh it reminded me of-” reminiscing. Such is the champagne problem of reading a lot, […]

here’s a large swing in politics

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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What a WEIRD book to read after The Sympathizer. X hundred pages of righteous rage against the bourgeoisie and capitalism and the inherent virtue of communism…transitioning into a “The Terminal” x Golden Age NYC x Anastasia dreamland of a novel, in which a well meaning former member of the aristocracy is forced (FORCED) to live the rest of his life within the confines of a hotel (in the attic, mind you) and uses his vast knowledge of social grace, gossip, dance, etc to subtly touch and […]

Spring Plays

Bump by Chiara Atik

Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet

Speed the Plow by David Mamet

Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O'Neill

American Buffalo by David Mamet

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Bump Completely unrelated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvPPA3Gv7RQ&ab_channel=SpankRock-Topic This more recent play begins with a few small moments in the life of a pregnancy. We start with a pregnancy message board specifically tied to “December Moms” based on their due dates, which the specific acknowledgement that some might have their babies in November, or January, or not at all, depending. From there, we move to our central players: Claudia is announcing her very early pregnancy to her parents. Her mom is excited, and her dad doesn’t initially understand what […]

Benjamin Labatut

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut

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“In a medical examination on the eve of the Nuremburg Trials, the doctors found the nails of Hermann Göring’s fingers and toes stained a furious red, the consequence of his addiction to dihydrocodeine, an analgesic of which he took more than one hundred pills a day.” There’s a few moments in this novel where the shape of the idea comes through most clearly. One moment comes when the reclusive mathematician, Alexander Grothendieck, is described with his shaved head as a lookalike for Michel Foucault. In […]



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