Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

North Stars

Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow

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This is an example of a multigenerational story, with many different timelines, done well. For a story of such breadth it’s really quite short, which felt refreshing. The characters in this novel experience some brutal tragedies, and yet the tone is overall quite hopeful. This is the story of the North family. Hazel North married Myron in the 1940s, just before he enlisted to fight in the war. Myron built Hazel a house, brick by brick, in the historic Black suburb of Douglas outside of […]

Saul Bellow (1)

Dangling Man by Saul Bellow

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“There was a time when people were in the habit of addressing themselves frequently and felt no shame at making a record of their inward transactions.” This is a reread from a few years ago. This novel takes place in 1941 and is specifically in the form of a diary by a man who is married and somewhat disheveled at the soul-level. What this means here is a feeling of unease and displacement as he goes through his days. The specific nature of this displacement […]

Broken Glass

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

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A hotel bartender accepts a billionaire’s proposal to pretend to be his wife. Unbeknownst to her, his financial empire is a giant Ponzi scheme heading for inevitable collapse. That collapse will spiral outward, forever altering the lives of many, like the night manager at the hotel where the billionaire met the bartender, and the shipping executive also present in the bar for their meeting. They and the other investors will never got over the loss of their savings, nor will they ever recover from the […]

“We can drown in regret.”

The Theory of Crows by David A Robertson

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A powerful story of community, of family, and of the hard work of forgiveness. Plot: Matthew is stuck inside of a crippling depression that has plagued him his whole life. He used to be able to play the part of a happy person, a person present for his wife and daughter, but the last few years it has swallowed him whole. This has meant that he has stopped seeing his family, stopped knowing how to connect to them, and they in turn and grown to […]

“I can’t think of any other explanation for why he’s so combative at 8:47 in the morning. In this economy? Who has the energy?”

See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon

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If you watched Palm Springs on Prime and want more, this is going to be your catnip. Plot: Barrett Bloom is starting university today, and thank god for that. High school was a nightmare, but this is her chance to reinvent herself as something other than an over eager student journalist who cost her school sport glory. Only she wakes up to the discovery that a friend who’d abandoned her over that story is her roommate, her professors seem unimpressed with her lack of preparation, […]

Put a little love in your heart

Heart and Hand by Rebel Carter

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Rebel Carter’s Heart and Hand was added to my TBR list after seeing a TikTok of recommendations that were intended to add diversification to your spice. It is a sweet, interracial menage set in 1880s Montana. I’m not sure why it was on SpiceTok, because while the sex scenes were plentiful and sweet, they were not particularly spicy – unless maybe a novel automatically gets lumped in that category if the main relationship is mfm? Julie is the daughter of a prince of New York’s […]



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