Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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And exhausted is my patience. (back to school, bingo)

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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I was hoping that re-reading this might make me more apt to like it; after all, it’s been eleven years since I graduated college and this is seen as one of Fitzgerald’s masterworks. But yeah, after MeToo there is no WAY I’m feeling anything resembling sympathy for Dick Diver, the worst psychiatrist in history.  There’s actually a line in flashback where Dick states his aspiration to be the world’s best psychiatrist and his partner thinks he’s joking and laughs; I laughed too because HE MARRIES […]

Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!

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I reread The Great Gatsby for about the 20th time (and third time in the last calendar year). Here’s what 11th graders have to say about it. I made them “Tweet” their reviews, hence the hashtags: “Overall all I didn’t like the book, it wasn’t very good and I feel it is very confusing to the young mind. Although that’s probably just because I’m not very smart.” “It was alright.” “I personally think that this book is an OK one, but I think some people […]

Beautiful prose, sexy twenties parties and all that jazz.

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“No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.” Right, so the Great Gatsby. I‘m pretty much on a quest to re-read all the classics that I read as a teenager and never really got. The Great Gatsby is one of those romanticized novels that most people say is about Gatsby who’s hopelessly in love with Daisy. So much in love that even though she basically dumped him by telling him “Hey-yo I’ll be marrying someone […]

“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”

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And so my goal of rereading my AP English course load begins…   Ok, so basically anyone who went to high school in America knows The Great Gatsby and it’s incredibly re-readable although I haven’t read it since before this treasure came out: 100 year old spoilers ahead… In the summer of 1922 Nick Carraway is living near his cousin, Daisy, in fictional West Egg trying to make a living after graduating college and serving in WW1.  While Nick has to work to earn a living most […]

This is the story of an unhappy marriage.

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Is this it? AM I REALLY CAUGHT UP???? Seriously, it’s been so long since I approached anything close to my amount of actual reviews that it feels a little strange. Vacation at the in-laws’ house has been good for reading and reviewing. I brought several unread-till-now books to read, and I’m making an inroad on those, too! I’ve never read any of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels, except for The Great Gatsby, of course. I decided years ago to expand my reading base, and I purchased […]

Life Imitates Art

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This graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, perhaps knowns to some as the creator of the Bechdel test, to others as the creator of the comic Dykes to Watch Out For, has won critical acclaim and is currently featured as The Atlantic’s 1book140 selection for LGBTQ month. I found to to be a truly engaging read both for its art and for its written content. The art is done in black, white and blue tones. Bechdel mixes up her own comic illustrations of her family with […]



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