Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“There is more history in a bowl of pasta than in the Colosseum”

Dinner in Rome: A History of the World in One Meal by Andreas Viestad

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I love Italian food (well, I am Italian).  I love history. I loved visiting Rome. Put that all together and you get Dinner in Rome – A history of the world in one meal by Andreas Vestad. This book was originally published in Vestad’s native language, Norwegian, but I am glad somebody thought it worthy of releasing in English in the US. The premise is very simple. Vestad sits down to a meal at his favorite restaurant in Rome. As he eats, he explores the […]

Why wait for the holidays to celebrate?

Everyday Celebrations From Scratch by Maria Provenzano

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Maria Provenzano shares a plethora of recipes and crafts to make every meal a special occasion. Since I graduated from college, I have gotten rather into cooking – it’s soothing, and it introduces some variety in my diet. I love trying new recipes, especially if I like them enough that I can add them to my weekly rotations. I definitely found some recipes that I liked in this book, but I doubt the entire thing would suit me. The book is divided up into five […]

So are people just getting you down? What if they just. . . weren’t there?

Dissipatio H.G. : The Vanishing by Guido Morselli

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A very odd little book.  Written in 1997, the Italian author committed suicide not long after the book was published, in part because none of his books had sold very well.  Hmmmm. The unnamed protagonist had been contemplating suicide, and found himself in a cavern in, possibly, the Swiss Alps.  He was ready to fling himself into a bottomless lake, but, eventually, reconsidered.  However, as he left the cavern, he slowly realized that Everything. Had. Changed. Since he had been living pretty much as a […]

An impressive depiction of a complex friendship spanning decades

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I’m going to begin by including a brief summary of each of the individual books in the series, before reviewing all books as a whole, as I don’t think it’s possible for me to talk about my reading experience and impression of these books individually. My Brilliant Friend We are introduced to the two protagonists of the series, in our narrator Elena Greco (also sometimes called Lenuccia or Lenu) and her best friend Raffaela (called Lena by most people, but Lila by Elena). As with […]



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