Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Historical Fiction Doesn’t Always Work

Lilliam Boxfish Takes A Walk by Kathleen Rooney

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According to the author this story was inspired by the life of Margaret Fishback. She was the  highest paid female copywriter in the world during the 1930s while working for R.H. Macy’s. She was also a published poet. The poetry included in the book was written by Fishback. All of this seemed like a great set up for a novel, and yet, for me it didn’t quite work. The structure of the novel centers around New Years Eve 1984, when Lillian Boxfish is 85 years […]

You are not the arbiter of knowledge, sir. You are its librarian.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

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CBR14 BINGO: Question square (I was going to give this the Gaslight square until I read the author’s note: “This book began as two simple questions: Do words mean different things to men and women? And if they do, is it possible that we have lost something in the process of defining them.” Question square it is.) This one will definitely be on my favorite books of the year list. Hearbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure. Esme’s father is an Oxford lexicographer working on creating the […]

It’s a literal railroad

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

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“Look outside as you speed through, and you’ll find the true face of America.” I was hesitant to start this book since I had so much trouble with finishing (really, starting) Zone One (from the same author) but I was pleasantly surprised that this immediately got my attention and I found myself compulsively reading it.  The story us about Cora, a slave in a plantation in Georgia.  Her mother had escaped when she was young and she is an outcast even from her fellow slaves.  […]

A Little Birdie For The Soul

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

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And here I continue with the children’s books. This one isn’t from my childhood bedroom though, I bought this a week ago, because it was announced that Andrew Scott would be in the movie adaptation and yeah, quite a lot of my book acquisitions follow that pattern… *chrm* In this case I’m very glad I bought it. It’s a wonderful book and I KNOW I would have adored it as a tween. It’s the fictional diary of Catherine, called Birdy, the youngest child and only […]

Whispering Hands

The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan

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I’m currently back living at my mother’s place, (Covid, landlord troubles, suffocating monotony of the big city, it’s a long and sad story) but the good thing about it is, that it gives me ample opportunity to revisit my favourite childhood books! That’s how I picked up The Raging Quiet again, a story about a teenager, who marries a much older and wealthier man, only to be widowed after a few days and now stranded in a village that’s behaving more than hostile towards her. […]

A Tale of Two Sisters

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

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A bestselling historical fiction novel set during World War II, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is best if you only think of it as fiction. Hannah may have researched the details of France and WWII, but her characters initially struck me as stereotypical: Vianne, the older responsible sister Isabelle, the beautiful and spontaneous troubled teen Gaetan, the striking escaped prisoner, headed to the French resistance movement The broken and brooding father The handsome, kind Nazi  Thankfully, Hannah developed more complex emotions and motivations for her […]



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