Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Not something I might have chosen myself, but really enjoyed! #FarAndAway

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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I picked this one up for a book club a few months ago. I really do not often read literary fiction, but I wanted to give this one a try. And lo and behold–I loved it! I ended up only finishing half before the book club meeting and got all sorts of spoilers, but to be honest, this book isn’t read for the plot. Knowing what’s going to happen does not ruin it at all (and I usually hate spoilers). This is a book that […]

A reflection on a gentleman

A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles

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I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book with such a localized setting. With the exception of one scene and a very few pages at the end, A Gentleman In Moscow takes place in a single building – the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. In the early 1920s in Russia, Alexander is a young relic, an aristocrat who survived the Bolshevik Revolution. The state wants to punish him but not kill him and thus he is placed under house arrest in the attic rooms of this luxury […]

This was a lovely and well-written story that I REALLY didn’t like.

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This book was everywhere last year. Everyone I knew was reading it for book clubs and raving about it. One of my book clubs finally chose it for our April pick, and I’m just finishing up (its long!). The verdict in my book club: Most did not finish. One finished and hated it. One finished and put it in her top 5 books of all time. And what about me? I was just annoyed. This is a nice story for the most part. Amor Towles […]

15: A Gentleman in Moscow

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The great thing about being in two different book clubs is that I get exposed to a variety of books I normally would not pick up otherwise. The bad thing about being in two different book clubs is that I have to read a book that I don’t like occasionally. And sometimes, it’s a mixed bag. I try to force myself to read the book, once I’ve committed, because I want people to read the book I choose. And I found myself somewhat hot and […]

This book is a delight.

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I picked this up because it was on everyone’s to-read lists.  I thought it was probably about Cold War spies, maybe something along the lines of John le Carré. This is not a book about Cold War spies. This is the story of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, who has been sentenced to house arrest in the Hotel Metropole, where he is in fact already a resident, for writing a poem. (It could have been worse–it could have been a bullet to the head.) Rostov is […]

Listen to the Heavens

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Rules of Civility takes place in post-Depression, pre-WWI Manhattan, among New York’s elite, those who wish to be New York’s elite and the clubs, parties and restaurants they frequented.  The majority of the novel takes place in 1938 and is told from the point of view of Katey (born Katya) Kontent, described by her friend, Eve, as “the hottest bookworm you’ll ever meet.” Katey is the well-read, orphaned daughter of Russian emigrants, Eve (born Evelyn) is the naturally blonde, (naturally?) ambitious transplant from Indiana, and Tinker […]



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