Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Or just another lost angel, city of night”

L. A. Women (2025) by Ella Berman

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I picked this book up because I liked the font, and the colours, and I’m fascinated by Los Angeles (where, of course, I’ve never been), and its foggy shadows and neon gleam: the films, the music, the messy myths and sprawling stories. The story here is a little Natalie Beach/Caroline Calloway if they lived in the 1960s-1970s, haunting Laurel Canyon instead of Cambridge and New York. Berman’s story centres on Gala and Lane, the friend with the glitter, the friend in the shadows, and the […]

1960’s noir, an art heist, dark family secrets, vintage cars, and loads of sex

Tenebroso by thesehands

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Tenebroso by thesehands Ronan was a portent, an omen, a sign that Adam might be in real danger; Declan had sent the most dangerous person he knew to protect him. ― thesehands, Tenebroso As he lay in Adam’s arms, Ronan noted the differences between what he remembered and what he currently felt. Adam was not as bony as he used to be, no longer elongated with the awkward stretch of adolescence. He was warmer than Ronan’s memories, perhaps only because he was real and tangible […]

Sometimes you want to look at a guy and say: Well, he’s f***ed, but he’s trying.

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

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Eddie has to be careful, otherwise he’s going to open his mouth and give this man five paragraphs of lunacy, starting with “You’re pretty” and ending with “Are you always this bad at your job?” with maybe some “Can I touch your suit?” thrown in there to maximize the horror. ― Cat Sebastian, You Should Be So Lucky It’s not just the burden of continually lying, it’s keeping your existence a secret. When the world has decided that people are supposed to be a certain […]

After a lifetime of throwing away love and affection, maybe he had a surplus, and Caleb was welcome to it.

Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian

Tommy Cabot Was Here by Cat Sebastian

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian

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Peter Cabot Gets Lost There had been that moment when Peter touched Caleb’s neck before lunch, but Caleb was ninety percent sure that was an accident and that Peter had needed to have about fifteen existential crises about it. Caleb didn’t have the energy to be anyone’s existential crisis. ― Cat Sebastian, Peter Cabot Gets Lost Peter caught himself staring at Caleb even more than usual, as if memorizing the precise upward tilt of his nose or the degree to which his freckles had multiplied […]

“We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.”

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

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This is my first in depth experience with Didion’s writing (although likely not my last as I have Year of Magical Thinking already on this year’s to read list). Slouching Towards Bethlehem as a title caught my imagination years ago and has stayed with me (I was unaware it was a further literary illusion, missing the Yeats connection). This is Didion’s definitive portrait America, but most specifically California, in the 1960s. I read plenty of books published outside of my own lifetime, but reading Slouching […]

“Strivers grasped for something better – maybe it existed, maybe it didn’t – and crooks schemed…”

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

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In one word: Meandering This book was the January/February selection for my work Book Club, of which I am now the unofficial president. Having been at my company for only three months I am stoked about this turn of events and was eager to discuss it with coworkers. This was a GREAT book club book, lots to discuss. I was familiar with Colson Whitehead, having read one of his Pulitzer winners, The Nickel Boys (which tore my heart out) so I was excited to dive […]



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