Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

a thousand apologies and what feels like a thousand reviews (through November 2023)

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Kindred by Octavia E Butler

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Hinumegin er mars by Sólrun Michelsen

Trust by Hernan Diaz

How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones

The Establishment: And How They Get Away with It by Owen Jones

In the Beginning was the Sea by Tomás González

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

The City & the City by China Miéville

A History of Burning by Janika Oza

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin

Passion Simple by Annie Ernaux

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller

The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain by Brett Christophers

The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray

Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir From Within by Rory Stewart

Rivals by Katherine McGee

Reign by Katherine McGee

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

The Iliad by Homer, Emily Wilson

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

10 Things that Never Happened by Alexis Hall

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy

A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The Starting Over Game by girl_with_kaleidoscope_eyes

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Edinburg by Alexander Chee CBR15: Sex True fact, when someone British asked me what I was reading I pronounced this “Edin-BERG” and to their credit they didn’t laugh but instead asked, with some horrified sincerity, if that’s how Americans say it. It’s not! At least, not on purpose. It’s just how can the English language claim to have been invented in a country that seems to not have grasped even a shred of understanding of how the various letters in it work? I digress. This is […]

Thanks, Obama

Trust by Hernan Diaz

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I found Trust (2022) by Hernan Diaz on Barack Obama’s Recommended Reading List. I tend to follow many of Obama’s recommendations, and Trust also won a Pultizer Prize. Trust is the story of Benjamin and Helen Rask: a rather eccentric power couple in New York City. What makes this book more memorable and thought provoking, though, is how we learn about the couple. I think this book is best when you don’t know what you’re getting into. Therefore, if you’re interested in reading the book, I would recommend skipping the rest […]

In Money We Trust

Trust by Hernan Diaz

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A friend texted me about Trust, she wanted me to read it so we could discuss it.  She dropped it off and away I went. The title Trust is a good one, because the word can be used in so many ways. The story is about a tycoon and his wife in the early 20th century. There are “trusts” in the context of money making, Wall Street, sketchy financial dealings and philanthropy. The book is also dealing with the idea of whom do we trust? […]

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?

Trust by Hernan Diaz

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I decided to read Trust because it recently split the Pulitzer Price for Fiction with Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. I had already read (and reviewed) Kingsolver’s novel, and wanted to be able to say I had read both winners. A word of warning: I couldn’t figure out how to talk about this novel without a few mild spoilers. Trust is divided into four sections. The first relates the story of Wall Street financier Benjamin Rask and his wife Helen. Benjamin, the scion of a wealthy […]

Both more finance AND mystery than I expected

Trust by Hernan Diaz

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When Trust was longlisted for the Booker prize, it was described as a “literary puzzle about money, power and intimacy” – and that’s quite apt for this novel. By the time I got around to reading it, I had all but forgotten any previous descriptions I had read about the novel, and thus the amount of talk about the 1929 (among others) market crash was a bit unexpected. Because this is a novel and not a textbook, the finance talk eventually gives way to a highly […]

It’s Only a Matter Of…

Trust by Hernan Diaz

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Read as part of CBR14Bingo: Dough. The book involves a man who makes a lot of money (“dough”) off the stock market in the 20s and 30s and how stories revolve around him. I was excited to get this one given both the premise and reviews. I have a yen for these kinds of neo-Gatsby stories set in the early part of the 20th century that examine finance and/or gangsterism juxtaposed with the American Dream. Legs by William Kennedy qualifies for this label, as does Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan […]



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