Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled.”

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

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While a lot of writing self-help books are about the basic mechanics and rules of good writing, Mr. Bradbury’s Essays on Creativity are more inspirational. He discusses what he has learned in his fifty years of writing and kindly shares it with us. He doesn’t promote so much as show you the path he’s taken. Of course, since his writing is so stellar, it only makes sense that his How To book would also be well-written and interesting. While he doesn’t make checklists, I do, […]

Nothing Slow About It

The Art of Slow Writing by Louise DeSalvo

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THE ART OF SLOW WRITING – Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity by Louise DeSalvo Of all the writing self-help books I’ve ingested recently, this one is probably the most helpful but the most badly named. It’s not about writing slowly at all. It’s about the tools a writer should be familiar with and possibly use to improve their craft. Nowhere does slowness enter into it unless it’s during the editing process at the end. I appreciate these writing books where the author is trying […]

“While I was killing him, I had to wipe my mouth with my sleeve every now and then because I couldn’t stop salivating.”

Mars by Asja Bakić

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Anything can become normal, if you continue to stick through it. War, murder, cults, doppelgängers, being deported to Mars- whatever world you are dropped into becomes your world. Asja Bakić is a master of normalcy in abnormal times and places. Her short story collection, Mars, is filled to the gills with the weird becoming common place. I was originally drawn to this collection for less than academic reasons: it is short and it has a pretty corner! I was looking to race through my Bingo card, […]

“There’s a particular feeling in your body when something goes right after a long time of things going wrong. It feels warm and sweet and loose.”

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

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Lily King is a magician. She takes an unassuming title like Writers and Lovers and crafts something beautiful, messy, and utterly captivating. Her last novel, 2014’s Euphoria, was my favorite read of the last decade- I have to admit that I was initially disappointed when Writers and Lovers was announced after the evocative fever of Euphoria.  A 30-something woman navigates creative struggle, debt, grief, and relationships? All I have to do is shout out of my front door and a line of people that fit the description […]

Don’t Nix this one from your to read pile. #obviouspun

The Nix by Nathan Hill

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As I saw the saw my Goodreads Reading challenge accusatorily tell me how many books I am behind right now (6!!) I panic searched for something I could do via audio while going on my many social distancing walks. This came up on my local library app as “available now” and a cursory search showed me that folks I like had it in their to read piles, so on I went. Once again, I found myself unknowingly entering a book set in Chicago (where I […]

Because language has suffered enough…

Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language by Don Watson

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When I first read the example ‘The competition policy reforms further improve the performance of government business enterprises through a program of regulation review, enhanced prices oversight, application of competitive neutrality principles and procedures for structural reform of public monopolies,’ on p65 of Death Sentence, I didn’t quite get the author’s point. I mean, I understood what it meant. But the next example of language spelled out exactly why a person like me needed to read this book. ‘Language is a key issue of access […]



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