Cannonball Read 9

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Review of the Great Books

The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, The Story of the Lost Child (The Neapolitan Novels #2-4) by Elena Ferrante

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I really, really liked Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, which is an incredibly blase way to compliment a book so raw and confrontational and, well, brilliant. The remaining three books in the Neapolitan Novels series build on the strong momentum established by the first and, in the process, continue to be some of the most poignant reading I’ve experienced in ages. The feelings that these books provoked in me were strong and visceral, inflamed and tender in their ebb and flow. These are not feel-good stories, but they don’t feel gratuitous in their misery, either. As a woman, my vicarious […]

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6/22/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:47 |

A YA retelling of You’ve Got Mail that’s much better than the film, in my opinion

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

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4.5 stars Bailey “Mink” Rydell and “Alex” have been chatting on a movie message board for months and both absolutely love classic movies. They have hit it off to the point where “Alex” invites “Mink” to his hometown to come see North by Northwest at an outdoor screening on the beach at the annual film festival being arranged in Coronado Cove. Bailey’s parents got divorced a few years back, and now that Bailey’s mother seems to be divorcing her new husband as well, Bailey has chosen to go stay with her father, who coincidentally lives in the same little surfer town […]

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5/17/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:46 |

I want to know what it feels like to have crushes that could conceivably maybe one day turn into boyfriends

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

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4.5 stars Sixteen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso has had a crush on twenty-six different guys (number twenty-six is Lin-Manuel Miranda, and I share your infatuation, girl!), but these crushes have never really developed into anything and she’s never kissed anyone. Molly’s twin sister Cassie is very encouraging and tries to get her to just “go for it”, but Cassie has had flings with a number of girls, and is a lot more outgoing and confident than Molly. While they are twins, the sisters have vastly different body types. Cassie is tall and svelte and graceful, Molly is introverted, quiet and what their […]

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5/9/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:44 |

Reading YA frequently makes me very happy I never have to revisit my teenage years

Weird Girl and What's His Name by Meagan Brothers

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Lula and Rory are basically the “Weird Girl and What’s His Name” of the title. Odd-ball teenagers in the little town of Hawthorne, North Carolina. They are best friends, sharing an interest for fantasy and sci-f, but their deepest and most abiding love is for the TV show The X-Files, being active in the online fan community and writing a joint blog where they analyse and comment on the episodes. Both have been abandoned by parents. Rory lives alone with his alcoholic mother, while Lula is obsessed with her missing mother, who at least left her to be raised by […]

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5/9/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:43 |

All ends well for the white man.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

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“Like all great novels, “Freedom” does not just tell an engrossing story. It illuminates, through the steady radiance of its author’s profound moral intelligence, the world we thought we knew.” From NYtimes That quote makes me want to vomit. What is it about Jonathan Franzen that brings out the white men? The “let me explain how awesomely brilliant and true and beautiful this book is”-men? This book is shite. And I’ve been reading a lot of reviews to figure out why people love it. The best answer that I can give is that it is full of IMPORTANT THEMES disguised […]

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5/1/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:12 |

“If getting drunk was how people forgot they were mortal, then hangovers were how they remembered.”

The Humans by Matt Haig

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3.5 stars This is a book I think I ought to have enjoyed more than I did. Indeed, there was a witty irreverence to it that I liked quite a lot, a style of writing that’s equally funny and poignant. It was the style, and the somewhat absurdist musings that were brought to life by the style, that was the most salient part of the book for me. The thing is, there just wasn’t that much of a story. The concept is that a superior race of aliens has gotten wind of a human solving a mathematical problem that will […]

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4/27/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:31 |

This Will Be Our Year, Took a Long Time to Come

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

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Breathing Lessons is the story of a single afternoon in the marriage of Ira and Maggie, as they take a road trip to attend an old friend’s funeral. Along the way, they encounter some unique characters, reminisce about their lives together and take a detour to attempt to mend their relationships with their ex-daughter-in-law and granddaughter. There. That’s the plot summary for this book, but it tells you absolutely nothing about what really happens. Breathing Lessons is a case study of a marriage. I could write this review to be full of the usual platitudes that are on the back […]

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3/20/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:12 |

“I was maybe the only person to ever have his imaginary friend made real.”

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

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3.5 stars English teenage boy James “Jamie” (although he really would prefer it if you didn’t call him that, even if NO ONE seems to listen to him) Watson has been given a scholarship to a preppy boarding school in Connecticut, not far away from where his father lives with his new family. He’s rather excited about the chance to meet another of the students there, though, the already famous Charlotte Holmes. James and Charlotte’s great-great-great-grandfathers were one of the most famous pairings in history, after all, and even though their families don’t exactly keep in touch much after all […]

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3/12/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:23 |

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