Cannonball Read 10

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Keeping an Eye on Her Abandoned Former Self

Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler

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I am the resident Anne Tyler apologist here at CBR. I know she’s rather unpopular in these parts, but I love many of her books. Her prose and her characters’ inner lives often resonate with me. Her books comfort me, and I find them great company during difficult times. BUT–all that being said, I cannot and will not stand up for Ladder of Years and the truly despicable actions of the main character, Delia Grinstead. Delia, mother of three children (2 college aged and one in high school), gets up and walks out on her family during a beach vacation. […]

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6/19/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:27 |

The Boring Lives of Medium-Level Jerks

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

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Hi everyone! This is my very first review of my very first Cannonball! And… it nearly sank my ship. You know that thing people say about “when someone tells you who they are, believe them”? I should have taken that theory and applied it to this book. There’s a quote early on about the family whom this book revolves around: “There was nothing remarkable about the Whitshanks… But like most families, they imagined they were special.” The key word here is “imagined” because they aren’t at all special, and while stories about ordinary people are often some of my favorites, […]

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1/5/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:1 |

How to Fight Loneliness

Digging to America by Anne Tyler

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Digging to America is the story of two Baltimore families who meet each other in an airport, pre-9/11, when they come to pick up their infant daughters they have adopted from South Korea. It’s similar to other Tyler novels, in that it’s an intimate examination of family dynamics, but it’s different than all the others, too–it’s bigger, as it also examines what it means to be an American. I know that makes it sound terrible and tiresome, but trust me, it is anything but. It’s one of my favorite Tyler novels, because it is such a skillful look at belonging, […]

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10/22/2017 's CBR9 Review No:49 |

Slight but Engaging

The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler

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The other day my mom texted me and asked, “Which Anne Tyler novel is the one about the strange family?” Easy, Mom–literally all of them. Tyler’s specialty is lovable eccentrics. In The Beginner’s Goodbye, Aaron Woolcott joins that list, although he’s not as memorable as some others. Aaron works for a publishing firm owned by his family, and is married to a doctor, Dorothy. After they’ve been married about 8 years, Dorothy is killed by a tree falling through the roof into their sunroom. Shortly after, she begins to appear to him in various places. Tyler’s books are always grounded […]

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9/19/2017 's CBR9 Review No:39 |

I [don’t] wanna live with a Vinegar Girl

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

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This book is from the same series of books as Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed, which I thought was great all around. That book took on the source material and transformed it, and while it did have some over-clever nods to the material, the narrator was aware of the material so it wasn’t schlocky the ways that sometimes these pastiche novels can be. This novel was, sadly. This is a re-doing of The Taming of the Shrew, which is weird to adapt, since 10 Things I hate about You was already perfect. This one involved Kate, the daughter of a Johns Hopkins research scientist living […]

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3/24/2017 's CBR9 Review No:118 |

This Will Be Our Year, Took a Long Time to Come

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

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Breathing Lessons is the story of a single afternoon in the marriage of Ira and Maggie, as they take a road trip to attend an old friend’s funeral. Along the way, they encounter some unique characters, reminisce about their lives together and take a detour to attempt to mend their relationships with their ex-daughter-in-law and granddaughter. There. That’s the plot summary for this book, but it tells you absolutely nothing about what really happens. Breathing Lessons is a case study of a marriage. I could write this review to be full of the usual platitudes that are on the back […]

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Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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3/20/2017 's CBR9 Review No:12 |

Once Upon a Time. . .

Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

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I don’t specifically remember the first time I read this book, but that could be because I’ve read it at least once a year since then–at this point, that’s ten or more rereads. This is my favorite book. It’s the story of Rebecca, a fifty-something widow, who at a family picnic one day sort of “wakes up” and realizes she has no idea how she turned into the person that she’s become. She runs a party planning business out of her home, attempts to corral her large family (I’ve read reviews that complain about how selfish and unpleasant her adult […]

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10/29/2016 's CBR8 Review No:47 |

I could be happy the rest of my life with a vinegar girl

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

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Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors (this is the third book of hers I’ve reviewed this year), and that is the only reason I was willing to read Vinegar Girl, a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed reading this. The modern twist in Vinegar Girl is that the “shrew” character, Katherine, is the daughter of an eccentric scientist, Louis Battista. Louis’s lab assistant, Pyotr, is in the U.S. on a visa which is about to expire, and Louis is desperate not to lose him. He convinces Kate […]

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10/23/2016 's CBR8 Review No:46 |


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