Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Archives for December 2021

How alcoholism (and many other things) can ruin a childhood

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

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I first saw Shuggie Bain on NPR’s Best Books of 2020 List. It also won the Booker Prize, and since I was ready to read some “real” literature, it seemed like a good choice. The story is of a working class boy growing up in the projects in Scotland with an alcoholic mother. I was a little worried when I saw the review by Kathryn A. Powers from Newsday. She said: “This is a hard, grim book, brilliantly written and, in the end, worth the pain which accompanies […]

“Being defiant can be a good thing sometimes,”

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Purple Hibiscus is a coming-of-age story and Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche’s debut novel. It is the story of fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja who lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. In some ways they are completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, it is revealed rather quickly that things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home—a home that is silent and suffocating. As the country begins […]

Speaking a universal language

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

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Thammavongsa is a Laotian-Canadian writer and her collection of short stories focus on Laotian immigrants and their children in ways poignant, funny and heartbreaking. Her characters tend to be lower class, aspiring to be middle-class, striving for a better life. For the most part, Thammavongsa isn’t focused directly on the aspiring part, but the small interactions, misinterpretations and obsessions that her characters experience. Her stories really draw on threads of race, class and gender. There are 14 short stories in the collection, and as with […]

Jane Eyre meets H.P. Lovecraft

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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I am a big fan of gothic fiction reinterpreted in postcolonial settings, so this was right up my alley.  Moreno-Garcia’s novel follows Noemi Taboada, an upper class university student in 1950s Mexico City. When her father receives a strange letter from Noemi’s cousin, Catalina, Noemi goes to visit Catalina in the remote mining town where she lives with her husband Virgil’s family. Granted limited access to her cousin, who is said to be ‘recovering’, Noemi spends a growing amount of time with Virgil’s family, including […]

Wait for it, wait for it. . .

Good Behavior by Molly Keane

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As we meet Aroon St. Charles, she has just served a lovely luncheon of delicate rabbit’s broth to her very elderly mother.  Alas, the elder Mrs. St. Charles can’t abide even the scent of the stuff, and promptly keels over and dies.  Not to let such a delicious treat go to waste, Aroon finishes it off.  Well, now, that seems a little cold-blooded, no?  Ah, but richly deserved. Aroon was been born into the impoverished Irish gentry.  They are down to slowly selling off the […]

Be a GD cheetah

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

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My book club decided to read Untamed (2020) by Glennon Doyle. It’s been on the New York Times Bestseller List and has over 4.5 stars on Amazon. It is a memoir discussing Doyle’s life and most recent struggles. My book club had mixed responses, trending toward the negative. I came from a slightly different perspective as I was the only one in our book club who had read Doyle’s earlier memoir, Love Warrior. I have mixed feelings about both of these books. I’d like to start with […]



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