Cannonball Read 12

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“It is visceral, it is personal, it is gleeful, and it is triumphant”

Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel M. Lavery

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While explaining to a group of medievalists his feelings on reading pieces that are older than a hundred years old, Daniel states ‘ I feel a profound sense of triumph and superiority over the author’ I said, ‘because they are foolish enough to be dead, while I am young and gloriously alive. Not because I think their ideas are outdated or anything like that. It has nothing to do with how they think, or how we see the world differently. It is visceral, it is […]

I’m as bad as the fool: filling up greedily, wanting more, loving it but not feeling satisfied

Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

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It’s been difficult for me to write about Redemption in Indigo. Karen Lord’s novel feels familiar and good in so many ways. It reminds me of the kinds of fairy tales and fables we’re told as children of normal but brave lives interrupted by magic, gods or other mystical beings hidden in sight, and important lessons drawn from their exchanges. But this familiarity, which is partially drawn from the brevity of the tale, was also a draw back for me. I wanted even more from […]

Sugar, Spice, and Things that go Bump in the Night

Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi

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Helen Oyeyemi is an expert in pulling back the cobwebs from the old trunk in the attic, shaking out the goods within, and daring you to take a good strong look. She weaves familiar fairly tales with Yoruba folktales, inter-generational family strife, and good old fashioned 21st century anxiety. In her most recent novel, Gingerbread, she leaves spicy breadcrumbs of Hansel and Gretel, the Gingerbread Man, and many other traditional tales. I was also strongly reminded of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Orsinian Tales. Oyeyemi’s characters present […]

Men Are Terrible and Cannot Be Trusted

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

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Ghost Wall is a story about Sylvie, a seventeen year old girl, dragged along on an Iron Age reenactment in northern England with her father, Bill. Bill’s enthusiasm for the Iron Age is a hobby; he isn’t traditionally educated in the subject, and jumps at the opportunity to join Professor Jim Slade and his students for what is essentially a two-week summer LARP. He brings his wife, Alison, and his daughter, Sylvie, along for the ride. It becomes obvious early in the novel that Bill […]



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