Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Like Father, Like Son

John of John by Douglas Stuart

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The two Johns in the title of Douglas Stuart’s new novel refer to a father and son. The son is our main protagonist, John-Calum Macleod, thankfully referred to as Cal in the text to avoid confusion. Cal is a recent graduate from art school in Edinburgh who, unable to get a job due to an economic downturn, has been crashing on friends’ couches or relying on the occasional hook-up for shelter. One day his father, John, insists that Cal return home to take over the […]

This Boy’s Life

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

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CBR Passport – This book is set in Scotland, as was his previous novel, Shuggie Bain. That’s actually one of the many structural similarities between Stuart’s two novels – both are set in the council flats of Scotland, both are primarily narrated by a youn, gay Scottish boy with peculiar reactions to the world around him, an alcoholic mother and absent or dead father, and two elder siblings – a violent brother and a solid sister. However, the tone of this book is a good deal […]

How alcoholism (and many other things) can ruin a childhood

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

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I first saw Shuggie Bain on NPR’s Best Books of 2020 List. It also won the Booker Prize, and since I was ready to read some “real” literature, it seemed like a good choice. The story is of a working class boy growing up in the projects in Scotland with an alcoholic mother. I was a little worried when I saw the review by Kathryn A. Powers from Newsday. She said: “This is a hard, grim book, brilliantly written and, in the end, worth the pain which accompanies […]

Rooter was at once the most difficult and the most helpful of the pequeninos.

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

Dakota by Kathleen Norris

Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

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Speaker for the Dead – 4/5 Stars This is the direct sequel to Ender’s Game, in that it’s an Ender book, doesn’t stay on Earth with Bean and Peter like other later books, and is the book that Card wrote right after Ender’s Game. It’s also one of those books I skipped for the longest time. I read the first book in high school 25 years ago and have read all the Ender’s Shadow books at least once. I think when I read the premise of this book I […]



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