Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This Family Tree is a Wreath!

Katie Mulholland by Catherine Cookson

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Katie Mulholland, the young scullery maid at a grand house, finds her life thrown into a tailspin when she is assaulted by her employer on the night of his engagement ball. I have an inexplicable love of old mass market paperbacks – especially pulpy books that originally sold for about a dollar that I never heard of before. So when my friend informed me that my local bookstore had an entire subterranean secondhand section, I obviously set off in search of most obscure, yellowing books […]

Obviously You Should Shoot the Intruder in Your Hidden Pool

The Proud Breed by Celeste de Blasis

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After an unexpected encounter by a hidden pool, Tessa and Gavin fall in love, but their lives together in a rapidly developing California will not be easy. Before this book I’d only read de Blasis’s Wild Swan trilogy, and it was glad to see that we see some of the same hallmarks here – strong, complex characters with an undeniable connection, no matter how many times they might fall away from each other for a time. In fact, I might argue that Tessa was a […]

“Her mom carefully selected her memories to reflect her established opinions, and it turned her mind into a bowl of lettuce she believed was a salad.”

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal

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In the past, I’ve started my reviews with “in one word” and offered one word that sums up my feelings on a book, but over time, that has gotten stale. Instead, I’m going to give myself ten words or less to try to sum up a book, because why not. (My reviews, my rules). In Ten Words or Less: Complex female characters uncover their potential and discover family destiny. This little book charmed me and was exactly the kind of light read I needed at […]

“The earth has turned. The time is here. I am dying. Come and collect your inheritance.”

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

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I tell you what, I’ve really been putting off writing this review. I just don’t want to try and put words to the subconscious magic this book can work upon a reader. And also the literal magic that is in the book. (An old woman turns into a tree! Flowers grow out of people’s bodies!) I’m really not going to talk much about the plot here because it’s way better to be surprised, but I will say that the book starts out with all of […]

A Disappointing and Weirdly Removed Second Book in the Trilogy

Early Warning by Jane Smiley

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I’ve read the first book in this trilogy (Some Luck) two or three times and really enjoy its structure and descriptions of farm and internal life. I therefore read this second book with interest, but I don’t think it was as good as the first one and I don’t think I would reread it. I’m still going to read the third one because these are transporting and feel like you’re watching a soap opera, so it’s good train commute reading. Not bad enough to stop […]

is it too late to change your ways?

L.A. Weather by Maria Amparo Escandon

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I’ve got high expectations for novels set in Southern California. If very little besides, say, the beaches and Hollywood register for the writer in question, maybe also some smog and traffic, I judge that hard. If you can’t say “I’d take the 101 to the 10 to the 405 for you” and understand that as an expression of love, write about somewhere else, please. So one thing I liked very immediately about Maria Amparo Escandon’s L.A. Weather was the real sense of place. This isn’t just LA, […]



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