Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Do you have sadness in your heart for the world that can never be & sensible shoes? You’ve got weltschmerz.” *

Roxy by Neal Shusterman, Jarrod Shusterman

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I don’t think I’ve ever positively reviewed a book I haven’t finished, but this here’s going to be the first. Because I’m the kind of person who can’t rewatch the Scott’s Tots episode of The Office, and who cringes just thinking about that one scene in On His Way to the Wedding (by Julia Quinn: Spoiler for a Bridgerton book ahead) when Gregory professes his love in front of all of London, and … it does not go well.  I just sometimes get to a point […]

Growing Up takes a lifetime

Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff

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Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff is a memoir in a journal format that takes us through drug addiction, sex addition, and mental health issues from the point of view of the user/addict/person dealing with the mental health issues.. The selfishness, the recovering, the relapses, and more selfishness cover each of the pages. We see Nic getting sober from his pills, pot, and alcohol only to get into harder and harder things until meth is King. Until his addictions to sex and drugs […]

When You’re Too Hard Core for Raymond Chandler

Fast One by Paul Cain

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Bingo square – People This noir classic was created when Paul Cain patched together five stories that he had written for the detective magazine Black Mask.  Published in 1933, it soon became famous as the book that was just too hardboiled to be fashioned into a movie.  And seriously, it is, even by today’s standards.  Daaaaamn son. Paul Cain was by then a slippery character in Hollywood.  That was not his real name, nobody was quite sure where he was from (spoiler, Iowa, actually), and […]

I don’t think Bill W. saw this gal coming!

Other Broken Things by C. Desir

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Oh boy! Did I hate this book by C. Desir for the first few chapters: Natalie is a spoiled rich girl and is a “drunk” and of course thinks she does not have a problem; that everyone parities. Her character was a cliché from the first word. She, of course, blames everyone else for her problems, but does not admit they are problems. Even during a cliched moment (that I had really hoped was not going to happen) near the end of the book, she […]

“I buried my hands in my pockets, curious at the enormity of it all.”

Opioid, Indiana by Brian Allen Carr

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Brian Allen Carr’s short novel is an odyssey of a week in a normal life, broken up by long chapters for each day. The days are long, but the book is quick. Opioid, Indiana is about a teenager called Riggle. His dad is dead and his mom his dead. He’s been passed around the foster system and even the homes of his family, depending on whether someone wants to go through the hassle of feeding a kid to collect checks. Riggle is from Texas, but […]

eating vegetables: the essay collection

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

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Now here me out: there are lots of reasons to eat vegetables. Sometimes your body is in revolt because you’ve had nothing but pizza all weekend. Sometimes you’ve made a new commitment to “take better care” of yourself. Sometimes you just really want some kale, damn it. Sometimes you just want to smother some broccoli in neon-orange-movie-theater-nacho cheese. Vegetables are good for you, vegetables are tasty, they can be prohibitively expensive- especially if fresh, but sometimes you just have to fight your way through a […]



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