Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Weaving a family together

French Braid by Anne Tyler

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The Garretts will grow on you. This story centers on the Garrett family, starting with the artistic Mercy and her husband Robin, who meet and marry in the 1940s. Robin works at the hardware store that was once owned by Mercy’s father. Together they have three children – dutiful Alice, slightly more wild Lily and the ever more distant younger son, David. They take their sole family vacation in the summer of 1959, which is a focal point for the early part of the novel, […]

Cozy and Comforting

French Braid by Anne Tyler

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Oh gosh. I read this book too long ago to review. I have to try and remember the details. French Braid is the story of the Garrett family, told through several vignettes over the course of half a century, each focusing on different family members. I liked this book. To be honest I like most of Anne Tyler’s books. Reading them is like wrapping up in a cozy blanket while the rain pours down outside. They’re just cozy and comforting to me. While this one isn’t a […]

Ten mostly good fiction books

Normal people by Sally Rooney

Conversations with friends by Sally Rooney

The amateur marriage by Anne Tyler

The pull of the stars by Emma Donoghue

Middle England by Jonathan Coe

Holes by Louis Sachar

The princess bride by William Goldman

The legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

The great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

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Normal people by Sally Rooney I’d watched the series before I read the book and yet the series didn’t put me off reading it. I suffered through it, just as I suffered through this book about Marianne and Connell. Two kids who go to the same school, and then later on to the same university, their lives entwined. We witness their strange dance as they struggle to communicate plainly with each other and fail again and again. Marianne is a broken person. Connell is sort […]

Beware against the sweet person, for sugar has no nutrition.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

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My book club picked Vinegar Girl (2016) by Anne Tyler. It had good reviews, and I think everyone was happy that it was a relatively short novel. According to Amazon, Vinegar Girl was a result of the Hogarth Shakespeare Project. The goal was to retell works by William Shakespeare for a more modern audience. Vinegar Girl is a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. I obviously know of The Taming of the Shrew, but I’ve never read it. I’ve heard it has problems with misogyny. However I have seen, and really enjoyed, 10 […]

I’ll begin our story with that afternoon, we hadn’t spoken for a year…

Sunshine State by Sarah Gerard

Wit's End by Karen Joy Fowler

The Warmest December by Bernice McFadden

Ordinary Light by Tracy K Smith

Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

Unfinished Business by Vivian Gornick

Thick and Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

Rosa Parks In her own Words by Susan Reyburn

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Sunshine State: 2/5 Stars A collection of essays ostensibly about Florida by Sarah Gerard, known for her previous novel Binary Star. Most reviewers (or at least the ones less impressed by this book) seem to land on the idea that the biographical essays are strong while the others are not. I think I fall in the other direction. The book is made of two-three kinds of essays: autobiographical/memoir pieces that range from quite impressionistic and meditative to more story-driven and then nonfiction profile pieces that also […]

No Surprises

Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler

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Bingo: Red I read recently that people who tend toward anxiety prefer to watch TV shows and movies that they’ve already seen, because then there’s no anxiety about how things turn out. I think this is true for books, too. I would always, always, prefer to read something I’ve read before–even if I didn’t love it the first time around. I think this is one reason I always return to Anne Tyler–even if it’s a book of hers that I’ve never read before, I know […]



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