Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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I remember this being one of my first moments nearing adulthood, when I realized how powerful memory was — or at least it was the first time it hurt the most. And there was nothing I could do about the pain of the past — it just settled over me

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

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CBR Bingo – Queer Lives “Y’all. Bret Easton Ellis is NOT OKAY.” So says I, at my book club where we read this book. I read American Psycho about a decade ago and distinctly remember getting to something so disturbing that I yelped out loud, slammed the book shut, and tossed it across the room. If that visceral experience sounds exciting to you, well Ellis has plenty more to disturb and haunt you with, and in this, his newest book, he will take 595 pages […]

“He was wrong, somehow, and he wanted to be all right, but it was almost as if there was some secret nobody would tell him, so he was always going to be stuck outside.”

Sons from Afar (Tillerman Cycle #6) by Cynthia Voigt

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In book six of The Tillerman Cycle, we spend time with James, the Tillerman family’s deepest thinker, and in many respects, its most troubled family member. Sweet Maybeth, though clearly developmentally disabled, has her siblings to look out for her and though academically challenged, is a popular and beloved classmate. Both younger brother Sammy and older sister Dicey are unwilling to bend to social mores and remain fiercely independent despite the pressures of high school. Despite their gruff exteriors and nonchalance, friends seek them out. […]

“So,” she heard his voice begin. He had a quiet voice, deep. “How does it feel to be an ex-token black?”

Come a Stranger (Tillerman Cycle #5) by Cynthia Voigt

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I’m enjoying my revisit to The Tillerman Cycle books, which were a favorite when I was a youth/teen. Though categorized as children’s books, they tackle adult themes with care and nuance that gives them a timeless quality. This book is the 5th in the 7 book series. Though the series is centered on the Tillerman family with teenaged Dicey as our protagonist, in this installment we get a deep dive into the life of Dicey’s best friend, Nina. We first met Mina in “Dicey’s Song,” […]

You Will Feel Better If You Just Read the Darn Thing

Reckless by Ed Brubaker

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Sometimes, I just wait too long, sleeping on books, making excuse after excuse about why I won’t finally pick up something I’ve wanted to read for years. Who knows why I (and apparently other readers are) this way? There’s probably some psychological reason. Ed Brubaker’s Reckless series is right up my alley: a disaffected 70s domestic Cold Warrior doing odd crime jobs in the 80s? Yessir. I should’ve read this at my earliest possible convenience. But I prefer prose to graphics, liking to sink into […]

Really, LA County Library, I’m still reeeeeeeading it!

Lush Life by Richard Price

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OK, not so sure why this one hit me the way it did.  But I always really, really try to finish any book I start.  And the LA County library system has, about a year ago, stopped charging overdue fees.  So I got a few “Hey, book is due!  Just saying!” e-mails.  (Bear in mind you automatically get 3 3-week check-outs, so 9 weeks.)  But yesterday, I actually got a message that said, “Hey, if you lost it, just fess up and pay for the […]

Nostalgic Earworms Ahead!

Skinnamarink by Sharon, Lois & Bram w/Randi Hampson; Ill by Qin Leng

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My memories of childhood are exceptionally vivid: I probably can’t tell you if I ate breakfast or not, but if you want to know who I sat next to in third grade, or every phone number of anybody I was friends with before I went to college, I got you. I only mention this because Sharon, Lois, & Bram feature heavily in my memories from about age 5 till about 10, and they made such an impact that some things, like the beloved-in-our-house “Skimmarink” song, […]



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