Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Big Daddy of WW2 Spy Fiction

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

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Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over. It seems like every other historical fiction book being released these days is about women who were spies and saboteurs during the occupation of France in World War Two. […]

“Love and Fear. The most destructive forces on Earth.”

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

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My brother gave me The Great Alone (2018) by Kristin Hannah at least two or three years ago. It looked interesting, but I have a hard time starting books I already own. I’m always distracted by new library books with due dates, as the books on my shelf sit forlorn and neglected. I finally grabbed The Great Alone when I was heading out on a solo road trip/backpacking trip, and it was the perfect choice. It had adventure, suspense, grittiness, and well-written characters. I can’t believe it took me […]

A Tale of Two Sisters

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

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A bestselling historical fiction novel set during World War II, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is best if you only think of it as fiction. Hannah may have researched the details of France and WWII, but her characters initially struck me as stereotypical: Vianne, the older responsible sister Isabelle, the beautiful and spontaneous troubled teen Gaetan, the striking escaped prisoner, headed to the French resistance movement The broken and brooding father The handsome, kind Nazi  Thankfully, Hannah developed more complex emotions and motivations for her […]

CBR12 Book Bingo – Orange

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

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The Great Alone was a book I heard so much about prior to picking it up. However, at about 50 pages in, I wondered what all the fuss was about. The slow build was a bit of a grind, but I trusted that the fabulous reviews were not wrong. Boy, am I glad I did not give up. The Great Alone quickly picked up steam, and I was entranced. When Ernt Allbright came home from the Vietnam war, he was different. With a stormy mood that flips like […]

A journey into the Alaskan wilderness

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

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What a wild and harrowing ride this book was. This is my first Kristin Hannah novel and it certainly will not be my last. This was a big book to undertake for the tale end of my cannonball, but it is our January book club selection and though hefty, it is a book that you can fall into and devour. Ernt, Vietnam veteran, and his wife Cora have a deep, consuming toxic love, and their daughter Leni is caught between them. Ernt is a damaged […]

This state, this place, is like no other.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

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CBR11 BINGO: Far and Away (BINGO! Remix square to Reading the TBR square) This book has been repeatedly recommended to me via various online trickery. On the surface it seems like something that I would like: a book set in the wilds of Alaska. I dig nature. I like reading books where the pioneer spirit triumphs against all odds because I would die 3 days into that sort of thing and because I was borderline obsessed with Holly Hobbie and Little House on the Prairie when I was little. […]



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