Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A Fantastical Little Take on the Concept of Family Secrets

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

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Funny enough, after finishing this book, my friend and I started watching I’m Not Okay With This together (see: video chatting while watching separately, hitting play at the same moment), and both that show and this novel involve young people who are unable to control innate abilities within themselves, that always seem to burst forth when the individual is angry or agitated in some way. But in both cases, this concept, while integral to the plot, is a vehicle for reaching into the deeper truths […]

“When you’re a kid, it’s hard to tell the innocuous secrets from the ones that will kill you if you keep them.”

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

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Karen Russell was just 25 when this collection came out; a fact that is plastered all over the cover, festooned in blurbs throughout the opening pages, and the header on almost every piece of criticism that was launched at the same time as this collection. Her youth is/was impressive, and most certainly made me look back at my 25-year-old self with pity, but her youth is not the spark that sets this fire. She may have been young, but her ability to give voice to […]

Do You Have the Need? The Need to Read?

The Need by Helen Phillips

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Helen Phillips knows how to grab your attention. My pulse was already quickening on the very first page. I had to read as much of it as quickly as I could; the chapters are snappy and taught. I had to stop myself from skimming to the bottom of every page. I was desperate for relief; chapters whip back and forth between the present and several hours ago and I just had to know what nasty break was waiting for me in the present. My distress […]

I’m as bad as the fool: filling up greedily, wanting more, loving it but not feeling satisfied

Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

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It’s been difficult for me to write about Redemption in Indigo. Karen Lord’s novel feels familiar and good in so many ways. It reminds me of the kinds of fairy tales and fables we’re told as children of normal but brave lives interrupted by magic, gods or other mystical beings hidden in sight, and important lessons drawn from their exchanges. But this familiarity, which is partially drawn from the brevity of the tale, was also a draw back for me. I wanted even more from […]

Were I to Pull Every Line that Made Me Gasp I Would be Quoting the Book in its Entirety

The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt

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I’d lick my lips, slowly, letting my pink tongue dangle out of my black mouth a little just like some animal waiting by the side of the road for the driver who killed it to come back one more time and kill it again This collection is stitched together with muscle, sinew, and blood. Samantha Hunt writes in a way that tears apart beautiful language and forces you to read the story through twisted entrails like a time-forgotten seer. The tales are modern in theme […]

A light and fun read to round out the year

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

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As I was looking for the last reads of my completed cannonball, only one more to go after this one (!!!) I wanted something light and fun to enjoy through the holiday season and I was positively delighted to discover I had this unread Sarah Addison Allen delight on my bookshelf. I discovered her early in her career and managed to go to a book event when I was living in Tennessee where I was the last attendee and remember being completely tongue-tied about it […]



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