Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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What a wild and crazy guy

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

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I love Steve Martin.  The first time my wife visited my house when we were dating, we watched The Jerk.  He is a damn national treasure.  I was interested in the reading this book for some time now, six years according to Goodreads, and it was not quite what I was expecting and yet I loved it all the same. This book seemed almost like Martin wrote it reluctantly and somehow I enjoyed that.  I suppose I expected Born Standing Up to be a typical […]

Bad books make for a good read

Bad Book Club by Robin Ince

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Robin Ince’s Bad Book Club is a funny and interesting tour through some of the books you will never find in Waterstones, hidden as they are inside charity and secondhand shops. Robin Ince has made a habit of collecting these books – the more esoteric or eccentric, the better – and reading them so that we don’t have to. Taking us into a world of ‘celebrity’ autobiographies (with those on the lower end of the fame scale and yet high on ego providing the more […]

I’m just a soul whose intentions are good…

The Delinquent Housewife! 1 by Nemu Yoko (translated by David Musto)

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Komugi and Tohru are young newlyweds (or about to get married? I’m not entirely sure) who move in with his family while they find their own place. Tohru’s family – mom, grandpa, brother Dai and sister Yukari – are warm and welcoming (except Yukari) and eager to make Komugi feel like part of the family. For her part, Komugi is sweet and helpful and just generally delighted to be part of the family. Just as everyone is starting to get comfortable with the new living […]

David Mitchell is slightly grumpy about things

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Thinking about it only makes it worse is a collection of posts that Mitchell has written for the guardian over the years. Dealing with everything from contemporary politics to weird hangups on grammar David Mitchell does what David Mitchell does best: is slightly grumpy about things. “Brainchild” is an odd word. You hear it a lot in explanatory voiceovers and I suppose I was trying to join in, but I don’t really like it. I’m not keen on the idea that my brain could have […]

My First Ever DNF featuring Paul, Mary, Mel, and Sue <3

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American on Purpose opens with a chapter on the white house correspondents dinner which I read just after reading this article. It made it feel a bit sour in my mouth. I bought this book, because, despite my rather lukewarm rating for Between the Bridge and the River, I did think it showed potential and people here were raging about how this biography was really good. I persevered through it, somewhat, but it was honestly a slog. It is mainly written for Americans, and there […]

Robert Webb is not David Mitchell

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Robert Webb is the other half of the comedic duo featuring the greatest love of my life. So when he published How not to be a boy a couple years back I was CERTAIN I was gonna buy his book. The man behind some of my favourite comedy, writing about his life through a feminist lense. SIGN ME THE FUCK UP. But yah. I never got round to it. Despite seeing his adorable face in the window of every fucking Waterstones for a year I […]



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