Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
I read this book over a month ago, so in covid time, that’s like what, 7 months ago?! When I went over to Goodreads to figure out how far behind I was in my Cannonball reviews I was like, “Oh yeeeeah. I read that!!” It was the book club pick for my local library book club, but since we didn’t meet last month (when I had read the book, Trevor Noah’s amazing Born a Crime) I figured I was off the hook this month but […]
Kristy's Great Idea (Baby-Sitters Club #1) by Ann M. Martin
In this, the time of corona, some people are killing time by embarking on new hobbies. I’m a proud member of the sourdough nation, i.e., those weirdoughs (bread pun!) making homemade starter and bread. I’ve gotten back into adult coloring and, relevant to this review, I’ve taken up reading the first novels of the Babysitters-club books on Facebook live. You miiiiight wonder how exactly I got to here. My favorite podcast, Literary Disco, is doing their part to raise spirits by cranking out more episodes […]
The Vine that Ate the South by J.D. Wilkes
This book is fast, ferocious, and fun- which is not a surprise, considering it was crafted by J. D. Wilkes of the Legendary Shack Shakers. He wrote a rollicking Kentucky Odyssey-meets-Stand by Me and illustrated it himself to boot. Not only is this a “do you wanna see a dead body” sort of tale, but it’s also a thoughtful look at the overpowering anarchy of kudzu vine (the titular invasive vine that ate the south), and the people of Appalachia herself. All of the characters within The […]
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh
This is yet another great read I “discovered” via ANUW, the Association of Northwestern University Women book club that I am a member of, by way of my employment at Northwestern University. I was a little leery, as last year the book club selections were pretty heavy to include J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. At first thought, his book has many parallels to hers, so I wasn’t that interested in reading more of the same. Vance of Elegy grew up in rural Appalachia and details the […]
I first read American Gods when I was twenty-five. It was only my second Neil Gaiman book; I’d read Stardust several months earlier and completely fell in love with it, so it seemed like a no-brainer to give this one a go, since so many people were over the moon about it. What I found was not what I expected. The book is long and meandering. Its characters inhabit the grey areas of the world. They do gross things, immoral things, right alongside utterly mundane and profound things. They […]
