Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“If you’re our age and single, dating kind of has to be an act of reckless optimism”

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

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This book explores the journey of learning that long engrained habits are no longer serving us, and that despite this knowledge it still requires immense fortitude to let them go. And then you have to go and do it again and again until you die. Plot: Sally is a writer for the copy-right safe SNL called the Night Owls, and she’s kind of bitter. She had let a lot of her youth be dictated by what she was supposed to want, and when she finally […]

a thousand apologies and what feels like a thousand reviews (through November 2023)

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Kindred by Octavia E Butler

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Hinumegin er mars by Sólrun Michelsen

Trust by Hernan Diaz

How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones

The Establishment: And How They Get Away with It by Owen Jones

In the Beginning was the Sea by Tomás González

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

The City & the City by China Miéville

A History of Burning by Janika Oza

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin

Passion Simple by Annie Ernaux

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller

The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain by Brett Christophers

The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray

Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir From Within by Rory Stewart

Rivals by Katherine McGee

Reign by Katherine McGee

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

The Iliad by Homer, Emily Wilson

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

10 Things that Never Happened by Alexis Hall

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy

A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The Starting Over Game by girl_with_kaleidoscope_eyes

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Edinburg by Alexander Chee CBR15: Sex True fact, when someone British asked me what I was reading I pronounced this “Edin-BERG” and to their credit they didn’t laugh but instead asked, with some horrified sincerity, if that’s how Americans say it. It’s not! At least, not on purpose. It’s just how can the English language claim to have been invented in a country that seems to not have grasped even a shred of understanding of how the various letters in it work? I digress. This is […]

A little SNL escapist romance

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

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I’ve read Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld, which I enjoyed. So when I began seeing Romantic Comedy (2023) around, I figured I’d like that one as well. Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls [basically, SNL]. She’s been working at the show for nine years and loves the frantic energy of it all. After an early failed marriage and an unrequited crush on another SNL writer, she’s dedicated to staying single. But Sally has noticed how many of the male writers on the show have ended up dating some […]

Coming Soon to a Streaming Service Near You

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

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Sally Milz (sidenote: what an annoying authorial choice, just make it Mills), 36, is living out her dream as a staff writer on The Night Owls, a late night comedy institution that just so happens to air on Saturdays at 11:30pm, feature a celebrity host and a musical guest, and is run by a legendary figure who is good friends with all the big-name ’70s rockstars. Any resemblance to real people or television shows is purely coincidental, I’m sure. Sally is used to the crazy […]

“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.”

I Would be Doing this Anyway by Jia Tolentino

Rewards by Emma Cline

Crewelwork by Justin Torres

The Tomorrow Box by Curtis Sittenfeld

If You Are Lonely and You Know It by Yiyun Li

The Summer House by Cristina Henriquez

Me and Carlos by Tom Perrotta

Simplexity by Kiley Reid

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Ahh, Lester Bangs. Or at least, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs via Cameron Crowe in Almost Famous. Did I just grab this quote because it features the word “currency”? Well…yes and no. Currency, my latest dive into Amazon Original Stories (but not the latest collection released) describes itself as being about “friends, trends, and dividends”. The link between these eight stories is the currency between people; social, professional, and personal transactions made when money is too much to offer or not enough to cover. The players […]

“I have not the pleasure of understanding you.”

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

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There was a lot about Curtis Sittenfeld’s reimagining of Pride and Prejudice that I liked, and a lot that I felt fell flat. In the pro column: The whole conceit about Bingley being well known as being in want of a wife due to his being on Eligible – the obvious stand in for The Bachelor – and walking away from the finale not ready to marry any of the finalists. Cute! Aging the characters up: teenagers being obsessed with getting married just sits differently […]



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