Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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White whale for a blackout (cbr12bingo 2: white whale)

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

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This is a door stopper of a book at 754 pages, but I’ve read longer books quicker. I don’t read enough history, and despite my historian father being obsessed with the civil war in particular, I know the highlights and half-remembered tidbits from AP history.  Team of Rivals has been THE Lincoln book since its publication, so it seemed like a good enough place to start. So I did.  Years ago.  And this whale got beached. I’m glad I finished it, but it is a […]

“Man errs, till he has ceased to strive.”

Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told by a Friend by Thomas Mann

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In this modern take on the Faust myth, composer Adrian Leverkühn, a cold but brilliant character, sells his soul to the devil for twenty-four years of unparalleled and innovative accomplishments in his chosen field. His life is chronicled by his childhood friend Serenus who is the only one close to Adrian, since isolation from others and abstaining from loving anyone is part of the pact, too. I bought this book about 15 years ago, read the first 300 pages, decided that I had absolutely lost […]

cbr12bingo – white whale (and BLACKOUT!!!! now I if only I could blackout and forget that this book exists!)

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

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Lolita is absolutely vile, and I cannot be convinced otherwise. Yes, Humbert Humbert is the worst, and yes, we are supposed to know that he is a monster, but good lord this book is venerated from here to kingdom come as if it is the be all-end all of twentieth century literature. The edition that I picked up, which was published in 1997 as a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the original pressing- and is still the one in current re-prints and mass circulation, STILL […]

“A dreamer, I walked enchanted, and nothing held me back.”

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

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Rebecca has been on my literary radar for 20 years and on my to read list for 6. It has felt like a big, important work that I needed to read, if only to more easily understand some of the references that are out and about: Mrs. Danvers, the opening line of “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again”, and so on. Rebecca joined the list of books I categorized as White Whales (Daughter of Fortune, The House of the Spirits, The Lottery, […]

I hated it

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

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I am pegging this one down as my CBRbingo white whale for two reasons: 1) I have been starting and failing to read this book for years- a lot of people kept telling me how great it is, and how much they loved it, but up until recently, I just couldn’t get into it enough to get past the first 50 pages; and 2) it is so long- close to 600 pages- and so finishing it feels like a real accomplishment (especially because ‘white whale’ […]



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