Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Fake It ‘Til You Make It, Then Keep Faking It

Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham

January 27, 2026 by lafocareta Leave a Comment

When your mayor declares a state of emergency, and you get a rare snow day, it’s time for an old-school reading aesthetic. Hot tea? Check. Cozy blanket? Check. Minor classic that’s been sitting on your TBR for the past three years? Check. “Stage Door Theatre Breaks in London” by AndyRobertsPhotos is licensed under CC BY 2.0 . I wasn’t terribly interested in Maugham until I read a fictionalized version of him in Tang Twan Eng’s The House of Doors, which had me idly googling to learn […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: British Classics, W. Somerset Maugham

lafocareta's CBR18 Review No:8 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: British Classics, W. Somerset Maugham ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Fools for Love

Up at the Villa by W. Somerset Maugham

October 31, 2020 by blauracke 3 Comments

Mary Panton, a wealthy and beautiful widow who lives in an old villa in the hills overlooking Florence, is asked by a longtime friend to marry him. While he is away for a few days and she is considering his proposal, an encounter with a young refugee could destroy all her plans for the future. This is a short but intense novel that makes some poignant observations on the many facets of love, with Florence and the Tuscany region as a beautiful backdrop against which […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: cbr12bingo, I Wish, W. Somerset Maugham

blauracke's CBR12 Review No:60 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: cbr12bingo, I Wish, W. Somerset Maugham ·
Rating:
· 3 Comments

It is one of the defects of my character that I cannot altogether dislike anyone who makes me laugh

The Moon and Sixpence by W Somerset Maugham

November 7, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is the 1919 novel by W Somerset Maugham that is partially modeled on the life of Paul Gaughin, a figure I don’t know much about personally before this novel, but looked him up for this. In the novel, Charles Strickland is a near 40 year old business guy who leaves his wife and teen children after seventeen years of marriage to move to Paris and become an artist. After several years of working at it he moves to Tahiti and starts a new life […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: the moon and sixpence, W. Somerset Maugham

vel veeter's CBR11 Review No:617 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: the moon and sixpence, W. Somerset Maugham ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

She had asked if he was good-looking. ‘No, I don’t think he is,’ answered Margaret, ‘but he’s very paintable.’

The Magician by W Somerset Maugham

May 23, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is a curious novel by Somerset Maugham written and published in 1908. The lead character, or rather, the titular character is a literally largely than life man named Oscar Haddo, who is into parlor tricks, and other occultish type things. He’s based or at least figured on Alastair Crowley. The plot involves Haddo being introduced into a polite society who is confused and bemused as whether they love him or hate him, or love him because they hate him. He’s oafish but quite alluring. […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: (Photo, the magician, W. Somerset Maugham

vel veeter's CBR11 Review No:285 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: (Photo, the magician, W. Somerset Maugham ·
· 0 Comments

The razor’s edge between satisfaction and disillusionment

June 24, 2015 by bonnie 2 Comments

While I am procrastinating revising my first article from my dissertation (yes, after that productive burst, I’ve been wallowing in writerly laziness, I confess), I’ve been thinking about my second article. My second reader on my committee suggested I look at W. Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge as a possible starting point for one of the articles, because it might complement one of my books pretty well. I have never read anything by Maugham, though I’d heard of his more famous work, Of Human Bondage. […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: bonnie, W. Somerset Maugham

bonnie's CBR7 Review No:114 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: bonnie, W. Somerset Maugham ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments


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