Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Good Feeling Gone

The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy

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Well, in much the same way I wanted to start the In Shock review on a positive note, I’ll start with the good.  This is beautifully written. Levy is an engaging writer, and I want to read a book about fluffy bunnies and lollipops by her. This is not that book. I may need an adult. This was like Dr. Rana Awdish’s book, but without the medical degree that gave her tragedy the ability to inform others’ care in addition to the benefit of sharing […]

I wanted what we all want: everything.

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I am not sure that having a story to tell is enough. This is a strange book, and my take on it is decidedly cynical. This is a long article that has been artificially extended to a book, and the same issues that would be true about the shorter article is true about the book, but it’s more watered down now, and more additionally fluffed out. There is no narrative through-line that makes a lot of sense, and if you are a writer and in […]

The Rules Do Not Apply

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I just realize that eight of the last ten books that I’ve read have been memoirs, and seven of those eight have been written by women. So my apologies if this review isn’t too in-depth — I’m trying to sneak it in before April ends and honestly I didn’t really like it very much so I can’t remember too much. It doesn’t help that I immediately followed it with a book by someone with almost exactly the same name but a much more interesting story. […]

“Daring to think that the rules do not apply is the mark of a visionary. It’s also a symptom of narcissism. “

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This is certainly a tear-jerker. I only picked this one up because I thought it was by Ariel Leve, whose memoir I read last year & mostly enjoyed, but I was wrong. Luckily, this mistake led to reading Ariel Levy’s  very well written but very sad memoir. From the back cover: When thirty-eight-year-old New Yorker writer Ariel Levy left for a reporting trip to Mongolia in 2012, she was pregnant, married, financially secure, and successful on her own terms. A month later, none of that […]



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