Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Another take on memory

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

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I am beginning to sense another trope I seek out in books and enjoy – a woman (person, but I typically enjoy it best if it’s a woman) looks back on some moment of her early life, usually involving a relationship in her late teens or early 20s. Ann Patchet’s Tom Lake fits in that genre. This book, probably the most soothing pandemic book I’ve read yet, was such an interesting book to read shortly after The Rachel Incident, another book in that “woman looks […]

A wonderful exploration of a dysfunctional family spanning 50 years

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

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Set in Philadelphia over the course of about 50 years, The Dutch House tracks the lives of Cyril and Elna Conroy, their children Maeve and Danny, and Danny’s children May and Kevin. Cyril left the military after WWII and through a little bit of luck and a whole lot of having the right knowledge and the right time, ends up turning a couple investments into a vast real estate empire that nets him enough money to afford a beautiful mansion in Philadelphia. He buys the […]

a thousand apologies and what feels like a thousand reviews (through November 2023)

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Kindred by Octavia E Butler

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Hinumegin er mars by Sólrun Michelsen

Trust by Hernan Diaz

How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones

The Establishment: And How They Get Away with It by Owen Jones

In the Beginning was the Sea by Tomás González

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

The City & the City by China Miéville

A History of Burning by Janika Oza

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin

Passion Simple by Annie Ernaux

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller

The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain by Brett Christophers

The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray

Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir From Within by Rory Stewart

Rivals by Katherine McGee

Reign by Katherine McGee

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

The Iliad by Homer, Emily Wilson

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

10 Things that Never Happened by Alexis Hall

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy

A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The Starting Over Game by girl_with_kaleidoscope_eyes

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Edinburg by Alexander Chee CBR15: Sex True fact, when someone British asked me what I was reading I pronounced this “Edin-BERG” and to their credit they didn’t laugh but instead asked, with some horrified sincerity, if that’s how Americans say it. It’s not! At least, not on purpose. It’s just how can the English language claim to have been invented in a country that seems to not have grasped even a shred of understanding of how the various letters in it work? I digress. This is […]

“We had made a fetish out of our misfortune, fallen in love with it.”

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

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I’ve had The Dutch House (2019) by Ann Patchett sitting on my hold list at the library for literal ages. It’s been available numerous times, but I kept postponing it because there was always something more pressing or exciting to read. Finally, I saw it again when I was looking for audiobooks to read and a familiar name caught my eye. Tom Hanks was the narrator of the audiobook! I usually like to read my literature myself, but I’m also a fan of Tom Hanks, so I […]

The Illusions we create aren’t all Magic

The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett

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This is one of Ann Patchett’s earlier novels. The book begins with Sabine holding onto Parsifal, toe. Parsifal has just had an aneurysm.  Born in Connecticut, his family died in a car crash when he was young. Parsifal was a successful rug merchant and a part-time magician Sabine  was his assistant for about 20 years. She was in love with him, but he was gay. Phan, his partner, and Sabine lived together in Los Angeles. Phan died of AIDS, after Phan’s death, Parsifal was diagnosed […]

“And so I made the decision to change. It might seem like change was impossible, given my nature and my age, but I understood exactly what there was to lose. It was chemistry all over again. The point wasn’t whether or not I liked it. The point was it had to be done.”

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

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In one word: Bummer Cannonball Read Bingo: People I haven’t read any Ann Patchett previously; I could have sworn that I read Bel Canto but Goodreads shows it is in my “to read,” and I consider it a better history-keeper than my memory. I’m a big sucker for a book with accolades, so the “Pultizer finalist” sticker on the cover had my heart. I picked it up as it was the monthly selection of my library book club. In my estimation, this is both a […]



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