Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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A Classic and a (Maybe?) New Classic

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

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This English professor finally got around to reading Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott’s classic book of advice about writing. In all honesty, when I read for fun I gravitate toward genre fiction–mysteries, detective novels, romance, etc. I like a good story. I was surprised, then, by how much I enjoyed just luxuriating in Lamott’s prose. It is by turns hilarious, touching, and, most importantly, honest. For example, she includes an entire chapter about professional jealousy that I at first found odd until I found myself relating […]

Shared Family Trauma

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

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Ask Again, Yes spans over four decades, and tells the story of two families, and how their lives have become tied together.  It starts when the two fathers are rookie cops together on the force, though even from this very beginning, they have very different personalities.  Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope are both beginning their careers in the force in the early 1970s, both are about to get married and start families, and as a result, it is not a surprise that both soon find […]

“We repeat what we don’t repair”

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

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This is a very sad book. It’s well-written, and I definitely wanted to find out what happened to each of the characters, but it was just such a beat-down that I would not say I enjoyed it. “There was no predicting where life would go. There was no real way for a person to try something out, see if he liked it…because you try it and try it and try it a little longer and next thing it’s who you are.” Ask Again, Yes starts […]



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