Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Doesn’t live up to its premise, but there are some bright spots

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

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I agree with all the mixed reviews I’ve read so far. This one has some fun stuff, but also some aggravating stuff, and not nearly enough comeuppance. The good: The true crime lovers banding together to start their own offshoot book club after the overly persnickity neighborhood book club is awful. Patricia realizing the way the world works and initially doing what she can to make things right (Mrs. Greene and the missing children from the “wrong side of the tracks”). The ‘rich white privileged […]

“Our humanity is worth a little discomfort, it’s actually worth a lot of discomfort.”

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

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I wish I felt better so I could really give So You Want to Talk About Race what it deserves, review-wise. The short review is if you haven’t already read this, you need to. Maybe you are like me and put it on your TBR right after its publication in 2018 and then it fell slowly down the list. Maybe you saw it on all of the recommended reading lists that proliferated in summer 2020 (A Reading List on Race for Allies, Antiracist Reading, Understanding […]

“A kiss might be blameless, so long as it was the other person doing the leaning. Was it your fault, really, if someone else kissed you?”

The Portrait of a Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky

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What if A.S. Byatt’s Possession popped up again in the internet age? The Portrait of a Mirror answers that question with a heaping helping of Greek mythology to boot. Diana, Wes, Dale, and Vivien are spoiled obsessives staring at themselves into eternity. They are slimy people, but you know what? I don’t care! I want them to be happy in their clandestine adventures, and I want them to be miserable in their public falling outs! Wes and Diana are married. Their relationship is a constant sparring match that […]

“from the housetops to the gutters – from the ocean to the shore -the warning signs have all been bright and garish -far too great in number to ignore”

A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet

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The children have a game: keep their parental status secret. If they keep it secret from each other, they can keep it secret from themselves. They won’t have to be the “children of” anyone. They don’t have to claim allegiance with the drunks in the Great House who let the world burn. Their game, and much of this book in general, brought to mind strong memories of “Old College Try” by The Mountain Goats. A Children’s Bible is more than what it seems. It’s presented […]

Nothing to Love Here

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

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This book came highly recommended, but it failed to ignite my interest. I had been looking forward to it for some time: a big-shot political family with black-sheep children who literally catch on fire when upset? Sounds fun! Except…that’s not the story. It’s the story of a fuck-up (her words) obsessed with another fuck-up of great wealth and privilege. It’s an ugly story about ugly people with some children (who do happen to catch fire when upset) caught in the middle. Listening to this book […]

DO NOT READ THE BOOK JACKET! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

The Witch Elm by Tana French

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If you are in the least bit interested in this story- as an avid reader of Tana French or a curious newcomer- then heed the warning and DO NOT be tempted by the book jacket! The inciting action is described- in detail- right on the open flap of the cover, but you will spend a good 250 pages wandering around in wait. It will ruin one of the many surprises, and lend an unnecessary element of additional suspense to something that is already full of […]



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