Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Learning About Ogbanje

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

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It felt strange to read this, knowing how heavily autobiographical it was. I felt like I was learning a lot about someone who’s a stranger but doesn’t fully feel like a stranger because I’ve read up on Emezi. It’s almost voyeuristic in a way, as I was left wondering what parts were fiction. I would call this a literary spiritual novel. The book follows Ada and the spirits (ogbanje) that inhabited her from birth. Most of the POVs are from the ogbanjes’ perspectives, sometimes from […]

Could Have Done Better Girl

Private Life by Jane Smiley

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Woman repressed, I’d call this.  By her own self. Margaret Mayfield, oldest daughter of three, begins life in Missouri in the mid1880s, and is considered by herself and her family to not be a good wife prospect.  Too bookish and awkward.  And she is not at all put out by this judgement.  But then Captain Andrew Jackson Jefferson Early shows up (we later learn how manipulated this set-up was by both moms), and she figures, well, I guess so.  He is quite tall and commanding, […]

Cons, Shenanigans, and Poetic Yearning

Scandal of the Summer by Alexandra Vasti

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One of Alexandra Vasti’s frequent archetypes is the very smart woman who doesn’t fit into society. As a woman who frequently looks back in confusion at social interactions gone wrong, I love it. After Miss Ruby Ballimore commits the sin of telling a man he’s wrong in front of other people, she and two friends decide to leave London and hide out at Princess Serafina Di Sangro’s estate in Cornwall. Pomeroy House is already a haven and smuggling headquarters for Captain Malcolm Archer and his […]

Love on the Spectrum, Austen Style

The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh: A Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mystery by Claudia Gray

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I enjoyed this installment of Gray’s Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney Mysteries even more than the previous book, The Late Mrs. Willoughby. I think in large part this is because the main characters and the setting for this one are straight from Pride and Prejudice, featuring a couple of my favorite characters: Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins. After two successful sleuthing adventures, Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney have returned to their own lives. Jonathan is back at Pemberly with his parents Lizzie and Darcy, while […]

When You Hate the Protagonist (But Enjoy the Book)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

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If you are anywhere on social media, you’ve probably heard of Yesteryear. This is the first book in a while that I have had multiple different people, in completely different social settings, mention it to me and ask if I’ve read it. And boy, have I. Yesteryear is the kind of story you can’t put down, because you have to find out what the hell is going on. It’s also the kind of story where you are actively rooting against the protagonist, because she is terrible. […]

Citizenship pending…

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel

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I remember during the height of the COVID pandemic, my intrepid state developed a humble little app. Queenslanders were asked to “check in” when visiting cafes, shops and other venues. The idea was simple: if an infected person had been at the same place and time, contact tracers could notify you quickly and recommend testing. The trouble was that authorities tried to make its use mandatory. Almost immediately, conspiracy theories flourished. This wasn’t a harmless public health tool, some argued. It was tracking our movements, […]



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