Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Weird West

Lone Women by Victor Lavelle

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“On Tuesday, Adelaide Henry had been a farmer. On Wednesday, she became a fugitive.” This is the story of Adelaide Henry who in 1915 takes off from her home in California in possession of a steamer trunk that has something trapped inside it.  Her parents are dead, and Adelaide is headed to Montana, planning to be a “lone woman” and going to homestead for two years before earning the land she has made viable for herself.  But the something in that trunk is going to […]

“There are two kinds of people in this world: those who live with shame, and those who die from it.”

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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I really liked this one! But the ending didn’t do as much for me as the first 1/3 did. It all wrapped up too fast and too neatly for me. I wanted to see the struggle and the nitty gritty details! But then again, I nearly always appreciate a longer book over a shorter one, so this very could be just a me thing here and you might love it (as the rest of my book club did!) Lone Women takes place around 1915 in […]

A Woman is a Mule, or “What’s in that trunk, Adelaide?”, or a Novel of Second Chances

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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I met Victor LaValle at a literary fest a few years ago. While handing him a copy of The Changeling, which was his latest novel at the time and the book I had just finished reading, I said to him, “I feel like I’m the person you’re writing these books for. You’re writing these books for me.” And I meant it then and I mean it now. There’s a point at which LaValle started writing the books he knew he was meant to write (he has […]

An elegiac paean that didn’t convey what it’s author wanted

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

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In 1981, Bruce Springsteen was in talks with Paul Schrader to star in a musical that would, six years later, become Light of Day, and starred Michael J. Fox in one of his first non-comedic roles. The film was originally titled Born in the U.S.A., which Springsteen would use to title a song he’d been working on about a Vietnam veteran. After going through several home demo permutations, it would eventually be the center-point for his 1984 multi-platinum album of the same name, and helped […]

What’s in the trunk Adelaide?

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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Adelaide Henry is a woman on the run. She is traveling to Montana to take advantage of the offer of free land to homesteaders regardless of gender, dragging only an enormous steamer trunk behind her. Adelaide isn’t the only lone woman in Montana with secrets. Can she escape her past? What happens if she stops trying? Little House on the Prairie this is not. I picked this book up on the strength of past works by this author that I’ve enjoyed and was not disappointed. […]

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Birds Galore

The Partridge by Kit Morgan

The Dove by Shanna Hatfield

The Hens by Merry Farmer

The Calling Birds by Jacqui Nelson

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Sometimes you’re just in the mood for plain and simple mail order bride romances. Lots of them. The Partridge (Kit Morgan) – 3 stars Reverend Chase Hammond, determined to save the town of Noelle, sends away for mail order brides to prove that the town can be a true civilized community. Of course, when the women actually arrive, things don’t run smoothly according to plan. This is the first book in the series, so a lot of the story involves legwork setting up the scenario […]



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