Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A great man, a great book (??), but not a book for me.

Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela

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Oh, this rating makes me feel bad. Three stars means ‘I liked it!’ I just don’t think autobiographies are for me. Nelson Mandela was a great man, and I’m glad I know more about him, but this was not super engaging for me, even in audiobook. The audiobook, by the way, is a good one. The narrator, Michael Boatman, is from South Africa, so he can do all the clicks and glottal stops that Mandela’s native tongue of Xhosa requires. His voice is soothing and […]

My favorite Olivia Waite book yet, with one of the worst covers I’ve ever seen.

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows (Feminine Pursuits, #2) by Olivia Waite

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Now that I’ve actually read the book, the cover makes me even more angry. I honestly, 100% no lie, did not read this book because of the cover. I find it loathsome. From far away, it’s bad. It’s clear the lady behind is wearing modern clothes. That is in no way the estimable Penelope Flood, beekeeper. The lady in front is wearing a dress that doesn’t fit, and also is ugly, and also she is supposed to be a printer. Where are her work clothes, […]

“In heroin addicts, I had seen the debasement that comes from the loss of free will and enslavement to what amounts to an idea: permanent pleasure, numbness, and the avoidance of pain. But man’s decay has always begun as soon as he has it all, and is free of friction, pain, and the deprivation that temper his behavior.”

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones

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This was extremely informative, and I should have read it sooner. More info and developments have come out about the opioid epidemic since this book was published in 2015, but this book itself won’t ever really be dated, because what he did here was to investigate its origins. No matter what happens down the road, this will always be how it started. (I’ve heard that Empire of Pain is a good follow up, but I don’t know if I have the emotional fortitude to tackle […]

This was a miss for me.

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

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This was ruined for me by the writing style :\ I feel like it actually walks the line between being written in a style that just wasn’t for me, and actually being poorly put together. Which is a shame! Because this premise has real meat to it. The titular Rukhsana Ali is a Bengali-American teenager, the daughter of Bengali immigrants, and also identifies as a lesbian. She has a girlfriend she’s in love with who is white, and they plan to go away to California […]

Not to my taste.

Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land by N. Scott Momaday

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I think Momaday is just not an author for me. I felt similarly ‘meh’ about his Pulitzer prize winning novel, House Made of Dawn, when I read it in graduate school. His stuff just does not resonate with me. This is a book of prose poems centered on Momaday’s contemplation of the natural world, and in specific the American West, where he has lived his entire life. It’s a small book, focused on Momaday’s own feelings toward the earth, and eventually, humanity’s. No surprise, the central […]

A good young adult book that I probably read too late in life.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

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I’m rounding down on this one for now, after weeks (months) of letting it sit in limbo because I couldn’t make up my mind how I felt about it. But this is a true 3.5 star book right here. Parts of it I loved and found very funny and charming and parts of irritated the hell out of me. The ending is very heartwarming and the characters are ultimately lovable. I think I might have just missed my window on loving this one. Too bad, […]



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