Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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The Bookstore Family by Alice Hoffman

The Bookstore Family by Alice Hoffman

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I really did not even enjoy the last book in this series, but this one got back to the magical realism that made me love this series at first. We now are following Violet, who is an adult and living in Paris. After leaving her family in Maine to go to culinary school in Paris and staying to work pâtissiere you would think that Violet is happy. But she realizes that keeping herself apart from others for so long has left her feeling adrift. And […]

The Bookstore Keepers by Alice Hoffman

The Bookstore Keepers by Alice Hoffman

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I don’t know if this is going to be the last book in Hoffman’s series, but this felt like a very weird note to end things on. I have loved the magical realism of the other books, but this one was kind of not hitting it for me. And I think it’s because of a common thing that often happens in romance books which I think is going to set off some readers. No spoilers, but I was just disappointed by it. “The Bookstore Keepers” […]

When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary

When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary by Alice Hoffman

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A very good historical fiction novel. I just felt sad throughout since you know how this ends. “When We Flew Away” is a take on Anne Frank’s life before she and her family went into hiding and she started documenting everything that was happening in her diary. The book starts off with Anne celebrating her birthday, but also dealing with the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands. I did love what Hoffman did here, but it’s missing her typical “Hoffmaness”–is that a word– there’s no magical […]

sometimes you just want to be in a low-fi band with your sister, but a literal battle between immortality and death gets in the way

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

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Absolutely perfect. No one can harness both the magic and ennui of being a teenager like Kelly Link. People will be handing this down to younger siblings for generations. Susannah and Laura are sisters. They are also band mates. The third member of their band, Daniel is their best friend and next-door neighbor. Oh, and Susannah’s friend-with-benefits. On the night of Daniel’s birthday, at a wild dive bar with a real carousel on stage, something happens: Susannah kisses Laura’s crush. Laura kisses Daniel. Susannah’s best […]

None for me, thanks

The Invisible Hour: A Novel by Alice Hoffman

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When I picked up this novel, I did not know who Alice Hoffman was. I have since learned that she has written many novels which often involve the use of magic and the supernatural. I suppose if I had known that going in, the twists in The Invisible Hour would have been less startling to me but I’m not sure it would have changed my feeling about this novel, which is pretty “meh.” The Invisible Hour starts with a very interesting premise that drew me […]

The Bookstore Sisters

The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman

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What a great short story by Hoffman. I love her anthology books for a reason. I have never really been able to get into her novels because I feel like they lose a lot along the way. But she always shines in her short stories. This one follows Isabel Gibson who now in her early 30s is alone and living in New York City. She fled her small town of Maine decades earlier after grieving the loss of her mother and father. She and her […]



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