Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Luck of the Irish

Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry

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Retired detective Tom Kettle sits in his wicker chair in front of the window of his seaside apartment in a small, nameless Irish village. He watches the cormorants, he looks at the boxes of books he still hasn’t put up, and he thinks about cleaning his oven and about his deceased wife June, his long-lost children. One day, two detectives show up at his door to ask about a cold case: a priest, stabbed and thrown off a cliff a decade or so earlier. New […]

[got me] to a nunnery!

Matrix by Lauren Groff

Heloise & Abelard: A New Biography by James Burge

The Tigress of Forlì: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici by Elizabeth Lev

Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a 17th Century Forbidden Love by Myriam Cyr

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I thought I was going to need some time to recover from the exquisite The Everlasting, but really it flung me head-first into a literal rabbit-hole. A warren. An abbey. A nunnery, if you will. Also- The Atlantic just posted a list of books that were done dirty by pandemic releases, and OF COURE The Everlasting resides within those vaulted halls. I was immediately drawn to Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici after she was mentioned several times in The Everlasting. A distant relative of her spots her likeness in the […]

this is the sort of book that requires some quiet wallowing time post-finish

The Everlasting by Katy Simpson Smith

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I picked this one up because of the cover. I saw it featured at my local bookstore and put it in my basket without even reading the blurb on the back. Had I read the blurb, I would have KNOWN that it was meant for me none the less, but something about the neon pile of bodies reached into my brain and demanded to be brought home. Unfortunately, “brought home” was as far as the demand went. It sat in my literal TBR pile until […]

I Read the Da Vinci Code and You Maybe Should Too?

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

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Before I begin, know that there is a special place in my heart for not-good movies.  I don’t know if it comes from watching Sunday afternoon disaster films like the Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno with my sister when we were little, but I’d almost prefer to watch a movie I can laugh at than one I laugh with.  It’s just a good time. Perhaps this helps you understand where I’m coming from when I say that I absolutely LOVE the Da Vinci Code […]

“God knows we are not perfect and simply invites us to try again.”

The Catholic Hipster Handbook: Rediscovering Cool Saints, Forgotten Prayers, and Other Weird but Sacred Stuff by Tommy Tighe

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Goodreads’ recommendations usually leave me scratching my head. It seems to make irrelevant connections, like Oh, you’ve liked a book with a red cover before – try this! But, I was intrigued by the Goodreads algorithm putting The Catholic Hipster Handbook in front of me. I’m not Catholic, but I did go to Catholic school for a bit. I don’t label myself as a hipster, but that’s only because I’m too busy with my vinyl collection and third-wave coffee and pipes to worry about labels. […]

Dear Diary; nature has gone haywire

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

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A young Native American woman learns that she is pregnant in a time of miracles and disaster; nature has gone haywire. Evolution has sped up, gone sideways, and/or stopped all together. Times are trying. It is a particularly frightening time to be a single person with an unplanned pregnancy- especially when religious-esque government agents are collecting and imprisoning pregnant women. Our narrator, Cedar, gives us her story through the pages of her diary. She is keeping accounts of her body and the world around her […]



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