Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Oh,” said Louise, laughing softly. “You came here for a nice dose of schadenfreude, and it didn’t work.” She sang, “Saaaaw-ry.”

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

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Running into 2025 with reading books recommended by people whose taste I really trust (hi, Julia!) but I’ve been putting off for whatever reason. In this case, it’s because I had this vague sense that the book was the anti-A Man Called Ove/Iona Iverson, e.g., what if you’ve got an elderly lead character and she’s not going to have a late-in-life fuzzy-feeling reconnection with the world plot that weaves together her neighbors? And that’s just…not really my vibe, normally speaking. Honestly? It’s not…not that, and it […]

“Oh God, Lucy.”

Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

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I’m a big fan of Modern Mrs. Darcy and her end of year best-of list (linked) aligns well with what I have already enjoyed / will be putting on my list for the coming year (she also has a fantastic summer guide, not to mention a podcast entirely about helping people find the right book which is super charming – I highly recommend checking her out). I haven’t read any Elizabeth Strout before this year, but so many people love the world that she has […]

But who ever really knows the experience of another?

Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout

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CBR14: Scandal square (I may be overreaching because this book is not about a singular scandal but it’s full of scandalous behavior: spouse & child abandonment, serial infidelity, and Nazis. Many skeletons in fancy walk-in closets.) This book is Strout’s third novel in the “Amgash Series” about a character named Lucy Barton. A fourth in the series is expected to be published this year. I did not read the proceeding two novels because I didn’t know this was part of a series. In any event, in […]

Round up 1

Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe

A Window into Time by Peter F Hamilton

The 10th Victim by Robert Sheckley

The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham

Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar

Keep Moving by Maggie Smith

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino

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The Sword of the Lictor – 4/5 I might be getting a little series fatigue on these books. It doesn’t help the matter that this is the second time I am reading these books. I am doing that because while I have read them before I am trying reconcile my feelings of them with the rave reviews I read online. The thing I most like about the books is that the world they inhabit feels very strongly like the kind of world I would love […]

Our Town, Crosby, Maine

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

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Cbr13bingo Shelfie BINGO BLACKOUT Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge reads more like a short story collection than a novel. Set in the seaside town of Crosby, Maine, this book takes the reader into the lives and histories of its inhabitants with Olive at the center of many stories and on the periphery of others. Olive is a complicated woman, prone to moodiness and judgment but also capable of deep and unexpected compassion for her neighbors. Through the relationships of Crosby’s residents, Elizabeth Strout examines […]

A poignant, salty heroine

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

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Set in the small town of Crosby, Maine, Olive Kitteridge is a collection of short stories that occasionally feature and always reference, at least in some small way, the titular main character. Olive is practical, blunt and opinionated but not introspective regarding her own feelings. She often flouts social niceties and seems incapable of apologizing . Despite this, she is not unlikeable- she is very human, and Strout gives the reader enough backstory and detail on Olive so that we can see her emotions even […]



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