Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About esmemoria

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Eager to get back on the horse this year! In my walking around life, I miss my old, blind pug (the Ancient Mariner), help amazing college students become teachers, and tie an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: esmemoria's Quick Questions interview.)

esmemoria's Reviews:

Tentacle Porn of the Best Kind

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

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You want all octopus all the time? Then this is the book for you, my friend! The Soul of an Octopus, written by Sy Montgomery, is an exploration of the beautiful, intelligent, mischievous octopus (plural is not octopi, as I once thought, but octopuses). The subtitle of the book is “A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness,” highlighting that through understanding the octopus, we can begin to understand animal consciousness. The octopus is one of the world’s most amazing, and sensitive, creatures. The author […]

McFadden Knocks it Out of the Park Again

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

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After reading Freida McFadden’s The Locked Door, I immediately dove into another one of her books. The Housemaid is about Millie, a young woman newly sprung from prison, who becomes a maid for a wealthy family. This is a thriller, so you know….things happen. Things I can’t reveal because it takes away the fun. Like The Locked Door, I read The Housemaid in a matter of hours. I scarfed them down like so much junk food. McFadden is a strong story teller, and her pacing […]

Excellent Thriller

The Locked Door by Freida McFadden

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The Locked Door by Freida McFadden is fun. That may be a creepy thing to say about a thriller, but it is a real romp. The plot centers on Nora, the daughter of a captured serial killer the Handyman, who has been in prison for 26 years. Nora has spent her life under a different name, hiding who her father is. But suddenly copy cat murders start happening that mimic her father’s murders. Nora’s life gets turned upside down and we are off to the […]

Don’t Let Bukowski Near Your Ass

Essential Bukowski: Poetry by Charles Bukowski

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there’s only one poet in this room tonight only one poet in this town tonight maybe only one real poet in this country tonight and that’s me – Charles Bukowski in Raymond Carver’s poem “You Don’t Know What Love Is.” Charles Bukowski was a prolific poet, an inveterate drunk and womanizer, and a purveyor of both bleak truth and flaming bullshit. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, I can’t claim to be a sophisticated reader of poetry. There is a lot of poetry that I […]

“Some days are just survival days, and that’s OK”

How to Keep House While Drowning: 31 Days of Compassionate Help by KC Davis

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I’m exhausted. I want to review this book like any other book—with sense, detail, and maybe a little wit—but I’m too tired and too sad to say much more than: this is a great, great book. It’s been recommended highly by Emmalita (see awesome review here) and it sounded like the right book at the right time for me. How to Keep House While Drowning: 31 Days of Compassionate Help by KC Davis is about combatting shame and judgment around taking care of your space. […]

Nicely Gross

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

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I’ve read Stephen King since I was a kid. I have vivid memories of reading It one summer with my head propped up on the top bunk of my bed, reading to the bathroom light, absolutely terrified. I like a lot of his early stuff (except Christine. The only scary car I know of is a Yugo). ‘Salem’s Lot is King’s second published book and it’s a good one. Not terribly scary for me for the most part, but some very satisfying gore. ‘Salem’s Lot […]



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