Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Sex, love, and self-forgiveness

Omega Island: Empty Heat by Wendy Rathbone

Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall

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“I really do hate all of this,” I confessed. “That I even have to be here. It’s a great retreat. But I hate the reasons why I’m here. I hate my body. All of it. It’s what I hide behind. It’s not the reality of me. I want to look good to the outside world, like nothing’s wrong. Like I’m worthy.” ― Wendy Rathbone, Omega Island: Empty Heat Callum is an omega who has tried everything: therapy, pills, exercise, meditation, and time. But, when the […]

Thoughtful, history-full memoir

Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto

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Mark Sakamoto’s 2014 Canadian bestseller has been on my to-read list for a while.  Forgiveness is a sort-of-memoir, focusing heavily on his family background.  It begins with the stories of his grandparents and their opposing experiences in WWII. His maternal grandfather, Ralph MacLean, is of Scottish background and grows up in adverse circumstances (poverty, abusive father) on a small island off Canada’s east coast.  When WWII is declared, Ralph sees joining the military as his opportunity for a better life- unfortunately he’s sent to Hong […]

On marriage, betrayal, independence and forgiveness

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A Thousand Pardons is a sharp-edged yet surprisingly funny  view of mid-life crisis, complacency in marriage, teen-age angst, and the dramatic turns these can taken when least expected. A privileged family in suburban upstate New York suddenly discovers serious fault lines in their lives when Helen realizes that the man she married so many years ago no longer exists. Oh, Ben drives to his law practice every day, sleeps in her bed, and eats her food, but interaction with her or their adopted teenaged daughter […]

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

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Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is Jeanette Winterson’s autobiographical novel about her upbringing by an evangelical Christian mother in England and her coming out as a lesbian. As with my previous review, The Golden Notebook, an underlying theme is alienation, a breaking up of the whole person and an attempt at putting it all back together again. In this case, the author struggles to reconcile religion, family and sexual preference. The main character, also named Jeanette, tells her story in retrospect and focuses on […]



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