Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A Point in Time Series Review

Naomi's Gift by Martha Hall Kelly

Ash Wednesday by Paula McLain

Landing by Olivia Hawker

We are Bone and Earth by Esi Edugyan

A Wild Rose by Fiona Davis

Alison's Conviction by Thomas Keneally

Mother Swamp by Jesmyn Ward

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Per usual, here are my reviews for each short story in the collection. Overall, this collection at times moved me and made me do more research on certain events brought up which is why my reading this week was slow (for me). Naomi’s Gift by Martha Hall Kelly (5 stars)-Phenomenal. You can figure out where Kelly is taking you, but I honestly was shocked at the the whole Holocaust camp for women/mothers/children. I keep thinking that there is nothing that could shock me at that […]

Whenever my mother drove us from coastal Mississippi to New Orleans to visit my father on the weekend, she would say, “Lock the doors.”

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

Navigate Your Stars by Jesmyn Ward

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CBR12Bingo – Nostalgia Men We Reaped: 5/5 Stars I can’t say I am nostalgic here, as I can’t imagine a childhood and teenage in America much different from mine, but I am about the age of Jesmyn Ward’s brother Joshua (and some of the other men and boys mentioned in this book), so it provides an interesting contrast to say the least. This 2013 memoir comes at the heels of Jesmyn Ward’s National Book Award winning novel Salvage the Bones and right before her second National […]

“Sometimes the world don’t give you what you need, no matter how hard you look. Sometimes it withholds.”

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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In 2015 I read Ward’s Men We Reaped and I was fascinated with the way Ward’s language in a memoir was tinged with a bit of magical realism, and also just a larger than life feeling. At the time I put Ward on my radar – this was an author I was interested in a further relationship with. Once reviews for her 2017 work Sing, Unburied, Sing started coming in I knew this would be the one. Sing, Unburied, Sing is a big, award-winning book […]

Life is Simple, Except When it Isn’t.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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This book is amazing. I love this book. I am so glad I stumbled across this looking for something to fill up my bingo card. Magical realism is one of my absolute favorite story telling devices when it is done well, and this is such a perfect example of what it can really do. This is the story of Jojo’s family. Jojo is a thirteen-year-old mixed race boy growing up in the current day South and straddling that realm in between boyhood and adulthood. He […]

Just read it

Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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Probably because I’ve read them both in the last month, I kept hearkening back to Lincoln in the Bardo. It certainly isn’t the best comparison, but the themes of grief and loss are persistent in both and very keenly unearthed by both authors. If anything, I went into this one knowing less and with more discovery awaiting me. It didn’t do as much more me (I still really, really loved the experimental nature of Lincoln), but I did really enjoy it. It’s like the book is haunting me. […]

Like my marrow could carry a bruise.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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I couldn’t decide if this was a book that I needed to digest a little before I tried to review it. Ultimately, I decided to write about it immediately after finishing it, while it still clung to me. This is definitely a book that clings to you. It’s not an easy book to read and it shouldn’t be. The bulk of the story is a somber road trip that takes place over a few days, trapped inside a hot car in the American south. When Michael […]



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