Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About kniki

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'Once a reader, always a reader' Hi! I'm from Australia!

kniki's Reviews:

Forty years later, An Open Swimmer stands the test of time

An Open Swimmer by Tim Winton

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Recently I set a goal for myself to read all of Tim Winton’s novels this year; and so I began January with An Open Swimmer, his debut novel, first published in 1982. Jerra is a young man on the cusp of stepping out and beginning his own life, but he has some inner demons to deal with first. It seems like he will keep self sabotaging until he succeeds. In the beginning of the story, he is on a camping trip with his boyhood best […]

You can’t guarantee your own happiness but you can stack the odds in your favour

The Blue Zones of Happiness: Lessons from the World's Happiest People by Dan Buettner

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This well researched book shares the secrets behind the happiest places to live in the world and strategies for us all to add to our pleasure, purpose and pride – the 3 pillars of happiness. There are plenty of lessons for politicians on designing happy communities, as well as for individuals on what you can do in your community, family life and inner life to stack the odds of achieving happiness in your favour. It seems the trick is to set up your environment so […]

A story about people who make mistakes, and how they can come back from them.

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

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I had never heard of this author or book until my son gifted Anxious People to me for my birthday last month. I feel bad now that I didn’t read it straight away – I didn’t even read it before the book I got for Christmas – it is such a great novel. And coincidentally it’s coming out as a movie on one of the streaming services. The story starts with a bank robbery that kind of accidentally turns into a hostage situation, landing a […]

A pretty good read for the holidays

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

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The Delaneys are a seemingly normal family with four grown up kids and a mum and dad who have just sold up the family business and retired. That is, until mum goes missing. Family secrets start emerging, dad looks guilty, and the children grapple with whose side they’re going to take. The tension builds nicely from the very beginning (making it a real page turner), with two timelines running side by side – the present, in which mum has disappeared and the past, starting around […]

Like hanging around with a couple of great mates who just happen to be famous, incredibly smart and interesting

Well Hello: Meanderings from the world of Chat 10 Looks 3 by Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales

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Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb are treasured Australian icons of tv, journalism and political reporting. They started a podcast in 2014 to discuss books, food, theatre, movies and other things they were up to (but definitely no politics! that’s for work hours!) and quickly amassed a bit of a cult following. The ‘fan club’ has its own social media community which now boasts around 50 000 members in Australia and beyond and is one of the most kind and caring online communities I’ve ever been […]

Shining a light in dark places

Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder & things that sustain you when the world goes dark by Julia Baird

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When Julia Baird was very sick with a horrible cancer she became obsessed with searching out phosphorescence in nature and this metaphor about finding a source of light and wonder during dark times drives the premise of this book. It is at once quite personal and very well researched. It contains sage advice as well as interesting anecdotes. The prelude starts out with a lot of fascinating facts about bioluminescent phenomena – ‘living lights’ such as glow-worms, ghost mushrooms and vampire squid. I loved reading […]



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