Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Ellesfena

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I mostly read nonfiction (especially public health-related), mysteries, and fantasy. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Ellesfena's Quick Questions interview.)

Ellesfena's Reviews:

Dying’s not so bad. At least I won’t have to answer the telephone.

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast

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Bingo: New (new author to me) This graphic novel is Roz Chast’s memoir about her parents’ aging and eventual death. It’s a dark topic! But the book itself is highly entertaining. Chast’s parents, George and Elizabeth, lived their entire lives in Brooklyn. Chast was born fairly late into their marriage, after they suffered a stillbirth several years before her birth. One day, when her parents were in their 80s, her mother fell. This was the beginning of a downward slope in health for both of […]

The Kind of Fame That’ll Warp My Brain

Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir by Wil Wheaton

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CBR Bingo: Star (Both because Wheaton is a celebrity, and also because of Star Trek) It feels like there’s been a lot of talk lately about child stars, what with Jennette McCurdy’s book coming out and the recent allegations against Fred Savage. Between all that, reading Still Just a Geek, and reading snippets from House of Hilton about Kim Richards, I’m starting to think maybe we should just ban Hollywood from using child actors? In the early 2000s, Will Wheaton published a book of essays (Just a Geek) […]

Heartwrenching and So Good

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

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Bingo: Heart (themes of familial love) What a lovely book. The Best We Could Do is a graphic novel by Thi Bui. It’s a story about her family. It starts with Thi giving birth to her son, and as she comes to terms with becoming a mother, she finds herself thinking about her relationships with her own parents and her childhood. From there, she explores her parents’ childhoods, how they met, their life in Viet Nam prior to and during the war, and their escape to the […]

“I’ll die young, but it’s like kissing God”

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

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Bingo: Monster (The Sacklers themselves, in case that’s not obvious) I read Say Nothing a few months ago, and it was excellent–so good that Empire of Pain immediately shot to the top of my TBR list. Empire of Pain is the story of the Sackler family–the family behind Purdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical company responsible for Oxycontin. I’ve read books before about the opioid epidemic and the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma have been mentioned–but this deep dive into the family was FASCINATING. Empire of Pain is divided into three parts: the first […]

A Pretty Solid Series

Hideout by Louisa Luna

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Bingo: Elephant (the elephant in the room being the white supremacist group that the townsfolk and police department of Ilona, OR, are desperately pretending aren’t there) This is the third Alice Vega mystery, and while it’s probably my least favorite so far, it’s still pretty good. Alice Vega and her sometimes partner, Max “Cap” Caplan, set out to solve the mystery of what happened to a college football player who disappeared mid-game–by running out of the stadium while still carrying the ball. The search leads […]

Rather Charming

The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

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Bingo: Adapt (adapted into a Netflix movie, and Enola also has to adapt to dramatically changing circumstances) For some reason, I tend to start new books with the assumption that they won’t be anything special. This feels pessimistic but on the other hand, maybe it saves me from disappointment when a book actually isn’t special, and it gives me a pleasant surprise when a book is good. I didn’t expect to like The Case of the Missing Marquess, just because I’m not really a huge fan […]



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