Cannonball Read 12

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“A dreamer, I walked enchanted, and nothing held me back.”

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

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Rebecca has been on my literary radar for 20 years and on my to read list for 6. It has felt like a big, important work that I needed to read, if only to more easily understand some of the references that are out and about: Mrs. Danvers, the opening line of “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again”, and so on. Rebecca joined the list of books I categorized as White Whales (Daughter of Fortune, The House of the Spirits, The Lottery, […]

I’m never crossing a rope bridge again

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

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A group of people are crossing the Bridge of San Luis Rey, an Incan rope bridge in Peru, when it collapses and all, tragically, plummet to their deaths. Observing this tragedy is Brother Juniper, a friar, who decides to tell the stories of those who died in this accident in order to conclusively prove that God has a divine plan. What follows in a series of vignettes into the interconnected lives of these few in early 18th century. Originally published in 1927, this novel won […]

The Muppets Did it Better

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

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As Tropical Storm Isaias took out our power, and one of my quarantine goals is to actually read books I own instead of buying more, I thought it appropriate to read this children’s classic that’s been sitting on my shelf for years. Like many of my books, I have no idea where this copy came from, which partially lead to its appeal. And even though I loved “Muppet Treasure Island” so much, I broke the VHS back in the 90s, I’d never read the source […]

Sublime horror classic

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

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This pandemic is giving me a chance to read some classics that I’ve never read before- silver lining!  Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley in 1816, when she was all of 18 years old (Lainey Gossip would call her a First Book Bitch although this was actually her second book…).  Frankenstein was Shelley’s entry into a horror story challenge between herself, her lover and soon to be husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their friend, Lord Byron. Despite what Hollywood might have you believe, Frankenstein is […]

Secondhand happiness

The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy

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The Tin Flute is a French Canadian classic, and the title has lost something in translation- its original French title is Bonheur d’occasion, or ‘Secondhand Happiness’, which is both more poetic and more descriptive.  Set in Montreal in the 1940s, Tin Flute follows the Lacasse family, who live in St Henri, a poor French neighbourhood near Montreal’s industrial areas. The novel focuses largely on the Lacasse’s eldest child, Florentine.  She is 19 and working as a waitress at a diner, funneling her income towards her […]



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