Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Bunnatine, Immy, Demon Lover, and Ghost Boyfriend walk into a bar…

Get In Trouble by Kelly Link

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Well, sometimes it’s a bar filled with men raised by wolves. Sometimes it’s a space ship. A warehouse full of mysterious sleeping people. A magical house full of “summer people”. A haunted house on a space ship. A lake where a few dozen nudists disappeared in the seventies. The penthouse party at a hotel full of dentists and super heroes. The crumbling remains of a Wizard of Oz theme park. A pocket universe that opened above Florida. Kelly Link writes things that are fantastic and […]

The Mozart Effect Effect!

Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman

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Not a typo! You are probably familiar with the Mozart Effect, but have you heard about the Mozart Effect Effect?! We’ve all heard the story: listening to Mozart makes you smarter! You will test better! Your babies will be brilliant! You will smash the SATS! Listening to Mozart every day will give you a leg up above all of the others! My mother was definitely a proponent of this adventure; “if you can play classical music, then how come you can’t do well in math! Mozart […]

“Stop the logging, stop the lies. Save the monarch butterflies.”

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

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For years (and years) my favorite Barbara Kingsolver book was The Poisonwood Bible, followed by Prodigal Summer.  And then I read Flight Behavior and I believe that I have a new favorite.  I have enjoyed everything I’ve ever read by Kingsolver, but there is a timeliness to Flight Behavior that makes it extra special. The story features Dellarobia Turnbow, a slight-statured, red-haired farmwife in rural, western Tennessee. Dellarobia has no family outside the family she’s made with her gentle giant of a husband, Cub, and […]

Yes, we know strip mining is bad. Where did John Grisham go?

Grey Mountain by John Grisham

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I keep waiting for the real Grisham—the author of “The Firm” and “A Time to Kill”—to return, but alas, it looks like I’ll have to keep waiting. Grey Mountain has a somewhat promising beginning, and although main protagonist Samantha is a bore from beginning to end, the plot has potential even if the most interesting character in the book gets killed off much too soon. And while I have total sympathy with Grisham’s theme in this book, the constant preaching and repetition put my teeth […]

That Time Lady Macbeth Went Hunting

Serena by Ron Rash

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Serena is described on the cover as a “retelling of Macbeth in Appalachia” and that is the most accurate five-word description that can be given to this book, except in this version, Lady Macbeth quickly outdistances her husband. George Pemberton is the owner of a timber business in 1929, and he and his new wife Serena seek to dominate and to expand this business by any means, often ruthless, necessary. When Serena discovers she cannot bear children, she turns this same ruthlessness towards Pemberton’s illegitimate […]



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