Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Detective of the People

The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Scascia

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There are plenty of crime novels at home and abroad that function as social critiques for their nation/state/metropolitan setting. Crime fiction is a good stalking horse for social commentary, because much of what passes for social commentary in crime fiction focuses on injustice real or perceived: racism, gender and economic inequality, urban decay, social despair, etc. Some books are better than others at doing this. All could take a lesson from Leonardo Sciascia’s The Day of the Owl. Less a murder mystery and more an examination on how political corruption and organized crime influence day-to-day life in Sicily circa 1960, The […]

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We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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7/30/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:68 |

Call and Answer

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

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What a lovely read. The language was lovely, almost lyrical. Very little actually happens but the author takes us on such a journey that we believe so much has happened. This is a relatively short review, simply to resist giving away the pieces of the book you should enjoy by reading it yourself. Elio is a young man falling for an older man who is visiting his house over the summer. The story slowly builds into an obsession. The tension is built through everything that is thought but never happens. Like any good story, eventually the tension is released. There […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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2/23/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:2 |

Italian Football (Soccer/Calcio): Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

Winning at All Costs: A Scandalous History of Italian Soccer by John Foot

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Read for Cannonball Read Bingo: place I want to visit. It’s tough to know where to begin describing this book because it is a wild 528-page ride. John Foot is a competent writer and a quality historian but he’s been tasked with a subject that’s overwhelming: the story of soccer in Italy. Foot does a great job at covering the history of Italy as a backdrop to its nation’s favorite sport and I learned a lot. I had no idea how young of a nation Italy is and how its still fractured by regional loyalties. Large swathes of people didn’t […]

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8/14/2018 's CBR10 Review No:6 |

The Glory of my Favorite Illustrator

In a Small Kingdom by Tomie dePaola

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The end of March 2018 saw a reissue of a Tomie dePaola classic Big Anthony and the Magic Ring (now called Strega Nona’s Magic Ring). The beginning of March saw a reissue of The Clown of God (last night was the first time I could read without crying my eyes out). And early April saw a rare site: dePaola’s text and illustrations by Doug Salati with, In a Small Kingdom. It is a miracle I can tear myself away from reading them! (Yes, my friends, I am a Tomie dePaola stalker, I mean fan). I am such a fan that […]

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5/30/2018 's CBR10 Review No:181 |

“Life is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along.”

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

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I’ve always confused A Room with a View with A Room of One’s Own. I recently reviewed a book about how to understand literature, and it recommended one or both of those two books. I can’t remember which. I’ll read them both! Amazon recently released a free version of A Room with a View, so I downloaded and gave it the old college try. ARWAV, as the kids call it (no they don’t) is clever, cheeky, romantic, and Romantic. I may not be the target audience for the book, but I lapped it up all the same.  ARWAV centers around Lucy Honeychurch, a young English […]

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2/3/2018 's CBR10 Review No:9 |

The Review of the Great Books

The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, The Story of the Lost Child (The Neapolitan Novels #2-4) by Elena Ferrante

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I really, really liked Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, which is an incredibly blase way to compliment a book so raw and confrontational and, well, brilliant. The remaining three books in the Neapolitan Novels series build on the strong momentum established by the first and, in the process, continue to be some of the most poignant reading I’ve experienced in ages. The feelings that these books provoked in me were strong and visceral, inflamed and tender in their ebb and flow. These are not feel-good stories, but they don’t feel gratuitous in their misery, either. As a woman, my vicarious […]

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6/22/2017 's CBR9 Review No:47 |

A book that puts the privilege of my education in stark relief

My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Novels #1) by Elena Ferrante

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Whatever “it” is, this book has it. Unsurprisingly, The Neapolitan Novels series has been among the much-discussed darlings of the lit fic world — a world that I largely ignore, as I mainly stick to genre. Despite sounding intriguing enough to prompt me to read it, I still knew very little about it. And so, Elena Greco and Lila Cerrullo came to me freshly conceived, raw and open and complex, out of their run-down and violent neighborhood, seeking an opening to become something more than their circumstances. I think everyone knows — or perhaps is — an Elena or a […]

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4/27/2017 's CBR9 Review No:32 |

When you didn’t hate the book, but can’t think of the title: a meh-ish review.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

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This was the last book of the book club I started in my local area. Aaaaand I read it over a month ago, so my memory is fuzzy, so this review isn’t going to be one for the record books. The book was recommended to me by a few folks, plus it was set it Italy, where I had just returned from a trip, so it seemed like a no brainer to tackle it next. All in all, I found it serviceable, but I just didn’t love it. Beautiful Ruins is a non-linear story about love, loss, secrecy, and social […]

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12/6/2016 's CBR8 Review No:25 |


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