Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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acrackedkettle's Reviews:

Are You Happy In This Modern World?

The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

How to Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price

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A double-header! I read these back-to-back and, while that was super fun for me, I would recommend picking one or the other. The Shallows is a sharply-observed exploration of what the internet is doing to our brains and how that is affecting… everything. First published in 2010, author Nicholas Carr was responding to rapidly shrinking computers and laptops and how the ability to access the internet from anywhere was altering our minds and society. Smart phones were not yet ubiquitous (the first iPhone was released […]

Faults and Double Faults…

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

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What’s the word for anti-drama? Whatever it is, it might be my favorite kind of drama. I loved this book and it follows a similar anti-drama formula author Liane Moriarty used in What Alice Forgot and The Husband’s Secret to great effect. All three books start with a dramatic, Lifetime-movie-esque premise (in this case, middle-aged retiree and mother of four vanishes, possibly connected to a mysterious stranger) and then use this to explore the most fascinating details of… just, normal life… getting married, raising kids, […]

“Zombie Mash-Up or Regency Dress-Up.”

Among The Janeites: A Journey Through The World Of Jane Austen Fandom by Deborah Yaffe

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So, intense fandom is just interesting, right? I never thought about till now, but there are lots of fandoms I find far more interesting than the thing they fan. I will never go to an Insane Clown Posse show, but I love hearing about my co-worker’s Gathering of the Juggaloes experiences. I am utterly uninterested in sports, but I have surprisingly strong opinions about best and worst fans (Best: I’m partial to University of Texas fans, who will cheer for a good play by the […]

“All that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.”

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

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It’s a novel about unbearable loss and terrible grief that feels deeply, vibrantly alive. The language is spare, yet lush, because to describe the world rightly can only be lavish, even when the words are simple. A monkey’s paws are described as “black and shiny, like boot leather, with nails like apple pips.” A feverish child’s face is covered with a “sheen of sweat making it glimmer like glass.” A woman in labor sees her child being born, “turning, twisting, slick, like a water creature, […]



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