Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Can You Steal Somebody Else’s Story?

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

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I love books about authors, bookstores, libraries, and publishing. I am drawn to stories about stories.  So of course I had to read The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. The plot of The Plot (say that ten times fast) is about a struggling writer who steals a sure thing plot from a student in his creative writing class. Jake is a writer who had decent success with his first novel (got a New York Times Review) and after two unsuccessful follow ups is not sure […]

Perfectly pretentious for me!

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

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While my friend Aileen though this was too literary and pretentious for her, it was 100% in my wheelhouse–gimme ALL the literary pretention, that’s my jam through and through. I thought this book was hilarious, maybe not in the laughing out loud type way but definitely in a “I was mentally chuckling throughout” sort of way. Jacob is every character trait I have ever despised boiled into one character and luckily you’re not supposed to like him! Now when I say every character trait I […]

I had SUCH an unlucky coincidence reading this book

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

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Bingo: City scape I experienced the craziest coincidence while reading this book, but sadly I can’t tell you about that experience without spoiling this thriller, so I’ll keep it general first, and add my spoilers below. I don’t often read thrillers, but sometimes a review just hooks me, especially when yearning for a pageturner while reading something else. So when Dustin posted his review of The Plot on Pajiba a few weeks ago, I was immediately drawn by it, and as soon as I finished the […]

The Plot of The Plot is a Very Good Plot

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

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Who owns a story? A plot? That is the core issue of this novel. Jacob Finch Bonnen is a struggling writer who has fallen into teaching creative writings in MFA programs after publishing two novels. The first was well received and landed him on a list of new and noteworthy authors, and his second basically confirmed his place in the obscurity that can only be experienced by the once-great.  During a low-residency MFA program, he meets a student who changes his life. Evan Parker is […]

Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz

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“And then she occurred to her that she was the ghost in her story. She had spent years haunting her own life, without ever noticing.”  The romantic comedy starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s book was very different from the source material. I enjoyed the movie, as I would probably anything starring Fey and/or Rudd. But while the movie was a fun romcom about an unhappy admissions officer finding love and family, the book is much more serious and in my […]



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