Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Dated and hard to stomach (DNF)

Rivals by Jilly Cooper

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This novel from the 1980s was recently turned into a series on Disney+ of all places. I watched it because it has a bunch of actors I really like in it, including David Tennant and Aiden Turner (who is sporting a ridiculous Super Mario mustache). If you miss the 1980s and enjoy adult, “Dallas” style TV, you should check it out. The first scene is two people having sex in the lavatory on the Concorde and a few scenes later we get full frontal male […]

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!

Upworthy Good People: Stories From the Best of Humanity by Gabriel Reilich, Lucia Knell

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I’ve had this book for a few months and now felt like the exact right time to read it. It would make a lovely holiday gift for someone on your list or for yourself. Upworthy is a popular contributor on social media, featuring stories of kindness submitted by the public. This volume, published by National Geographic, is a compilation of those stories divided into six chapters. The stories are mostly short — from a paragraph to 2-3 pages — but every one of them is […]

An extraordinary friendship (cannonball!)

The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien by John Hendrix

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The Mythmakers is a graphic story written for middle schoolers and older. The narrators of this biography/history are a lion (CS Lewis) and a Wizard (JRR Tolkien). The Mythmakers covers the life stories of each man in brief as well as going into detail on their ideas about storytelling and myths. Lewis and Tolkien shared some remarkable things in common but clearly they were two very different men whose friendship inspired them to write their greatest works. Yet their differences (other relationships, perhaps jealousy, differences […]

Difficult Women

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox: A Novel by Maggie O’Farrell

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Maggie O’Farrell is one of my favorite contemporary writers. She has a great talent for historical fiction (read Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait), and she excels at telling stories of women who find themselves in untenable positions. In The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Esme is a woman who, like Agnes in Hamnet and Lucrezia in The Marriage Portrait, is unusual in ways that make her seem dangerous to those around her. She does not conform to conventional traditional female roles and, as we know […]

If you are needing some unsettling horror-type reading, here you go

The Night Guest: A Novel by Hildur Knutsdottir

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If you’re looking for a book to set you on edge for spooky season, this is it. This short novel from Icelandic author Hildur Knutsdottir is a very quick read full of foreboding and tension. It’s also a commentary on women’s health and mental health and the stigma/lack of attention attached to both.  The novel is narrated by the main character, a woman who I imagine to be in her 30s or so. Odunn (not sure if this is a correct spelling, since it seems […]

Don’t fear the reaper

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer: A SCYTHE Mystery Book 1 by Maxie Dara

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This is a decent murder mystery featuring “grim reapers” and dead souls. It’s funny at times and includes some colorful support characters who clearly will play a big role in future novels in the series. I found it through a “Book Riot” recommendation. Book Riot is one of those book accounts on FB that pops up in my feed regularly and sometimes makes pretty good recommendations. A Grim Reaper’s Guide was good; not “wow, I can’t wait to read the rest of this series” good, […]



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