Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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About booktrovert

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I'm a special education teacher by day and a reader by most other hours. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Booktrovert's Quick Questions interview.)

booktrovert's Reviews:

“You can’t know the weather in store, the size of the waves. All in this strange eventful history is uncertain.”

This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud

June 30, 2024 by booktrovert Leave a Comment

I love a multigenerational family tale, one that sweeps across history and continents. And in that, this novel succeeds, with lovely writing, to boot. The story of the Cassar family is a fictional version of Messud’s own history, and hinges on the point at which her French Algerian family grapples with the history (and future) of colonialism around World War II. Messud’s own great grandfather wrote an in-depth family history, which would later take Messud (and her fictional counterpart within this novel) 20 years to […]

Filed Under: Featured, Fiction Tagged With: Claire Messud

booktrovert's CBR16 Review No:16 · Genres: Featured, Fiction · Tags: Claire Messud ·
· 0 Comments

** Insert joke here ** about losing it …

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

June 23, 2024 by booktrovert Leave a Comment

This novel was incredibly popular back in 2021 – remember those days? Possibly the worst of the pandemic years. We were all pretty well aware the the pandemic had gone on long enough, but none of us could agree about how to really end it and move on. That isn’t necessarily related to the book itself, but I think it might be related to the book’s popularity. Everything was so uncertain – politics, health, nearly every aspect of social or school or public life at […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Jean Hanff Korelitz

booktrovert's CBR16 Review No:17 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Jean Hanff Korelitz ·
· 0 Comments

“I am waiting for the things I love to come back to me, to tell me they were only joking.”

Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley

This Time TOmorrow by Emma Straub

June 17, 2024 by booktrovert Leave a Comment

Sloane Crosley wrote one of my favorite books in recent years – the funny, strange, smart Cult Classic – and when I heard she released a memoir about grief, I knew I wanted to put that in my library queue. In this memoir, Crosley tells about a terrible summer in 2019 when she experienced two jarring losses – first, a home burglary (while she was out) in which she lost some important jewelry (and a sense of safety at home), and shortly afterwards a dear […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Emma Straub, Sloane Crosley

booktrovert's CBR16 Review No:15 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Emma Straub, Sloane Crosley ·
· 0 Comments

Three Books I Read in March

To Name the Bigger Lie by Sarah Viren

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

May 8, 2024 by booktrovert Leave a Comment

Oh, is it already May? I have … too many books that I didn’t review in March and April, but I’m going to try sharing a few at a time. The school year is almost done, and among book people I think it’s fairly common that many of us still live our lives by both the calendar AND the school year. Here we have: a fascinating literary memoir, a decent family saga, and one of those strange gems that make reading widely so enjoyable. To […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: elizabeth acevedo, Emily Habeck, Sarah Viren

booktrovert's CBR16 Review No:13 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: elizabeth acevedo, Emily Habeck, Sarah Viren ·
· 0 Comments

“No life is ever in the skinniest bit predictable.”

People Collide by Isle McElroy

March 24, 2024 by booktrovert Leave a Comment

Can you imagine gender-bending body switching done well? A novel in which both bodies and minds are taken seriously, even amid the most impossible of circumstances? Isle McElroy, who also identifies as non-binary, manages to capture the necessity and insignificance of gender in this brief, genius novel. The premise – a newly wed couple in their later 20s, living in Bulgaria, wakes to find themselves inhabiting one another’s bodies. We exist primarily in the perspective of Eli, who discovers that while his thoughts are his […]

Filed Under: Featured, Fiction Tagged With: Isle McElroy

booktrovert's CBR16 Review No:9 · Genres: Featured, Fiction · Tags: Isle McElroy ·
· 0 Comments

Where did it all go wrong?

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

March 20, 2024 by booktrovert Leave a Comment

The title of this book is about misdirection as much as it is about anything else. It’s rife with things that do not actually happen. Pages are spent telling stories about things that might happen, or that we think may have happened – but in reality, so little does occur, until we are left wondering what else WILL happen. The novel centers on the Barnes family. Dickie Barnes and his wife Imelda live with their two children, but their well-to-do lifestyle is quickly about to […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Paul Murray

booktrovert's CBR16 Review No:10 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Paul Murray ·
· 0 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
  • Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
  • Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
  • Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
  • Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.
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