Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Forty women trapped in a bunker for years

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

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CBR17Bingo: “Diaspora” – a little bit of a stretch, but this book has countless people all taken from their homes and brought to another location that is foreign to them. (It’s unclear, but it seems like they may have been brought from a different planet.) I stumbled on this book while browsing Audiobooks for something to listen to in my car. I had no idea what I was getting into. I Who Have Never Known Men (1995) by Jacqueline Harpman was originally written in French and has recently been […]

really, truly didn’t expect to be so engrossed by a book that plaintively does not offer any answers

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

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SO this is a book for Book Group, aka the book club I always assumed would be a fundamental part of my adult life along with “day to night” outfits (except this did happen). We got the recommendation actually from our Guest of Honor, Emma van Straaten (author of Creep, which we read last time), a solid win given the complications of finding a book that appeals to a group of 6-8-ish women and also hasn’t been read by more than one person. It is […]

What Is A Life

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

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Best for: Those who enjoy more philosophical works of fiction. Those who don’t need every question answered. ** Spoilers Below ** In a nutshell: Our unnamed narrator is a teen girl who finds herself locked in a windowless jail with 39 women. She recalls nothing of her life before arriving here, and this book follows her life. Worth quoting: “They’d wanted something all their lives, but now they had it, they didn’t recognise it.” “What does having lived mean once you are no longer alive?” […]



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