CW: racism, obviously, but also pre-Roe-era abortion, including bad outcomes (offscreen) What is it with books about ambivalent/absent mothers and the impact on the (female) child? I feel like I’m being hit over the head with a lesson that I don’t particular need! I found this book almost impossible to put down–I had an evening to myself to do errands that needed doing, and instead found myself lying on the couch running through this as fast as I could. Kin traces the parallel but connected […]

https://cannonballread.com/2026/09/kin-wicherwill/

Best for: People who enjoy stories told from multiple perspectives. In a nutshell: Roy Jr and his wife Celestial have been married for a year and a half and are visiting his folks when a chance encounter at a hotel leads to a woman falsely accusing him of rape. He is convicted and sent away. This is the story of what happens next. Worth quoting: “Is motherhood really optional when you’re a perfectly normal woman married to a perfectly normal man?” (This isn’t a huge […]

This book has been well read, well reviewed, and on every list for a reason – it is very very good. It is a beautifully written, horrifyingly tragic story that speaks as much about America as it does about the marriage at the novel’s core. It is stunning and it is sad. The short version is, a young couple, only married a year, are visiting his parents in small town Louisiana when the husband is arrested, tried, and convicted of a crime he absolutely did […]