Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Leedock

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Disney World lover. Chewbacca hugger. Reader of books. Writer of words. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Leedock's Quick Questions interview.)

Leedock's Reviews:

…she now knew there was a darkness that succeeded her, which dismantled the pronoun without destroying its contents. She would end, but she would not be over.

Garden of Earthly Bodies by Sally Oliver

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CBR14 BINGO: Bodies square (Obviously, the title. But also, this author has a very interesting way of writing about bodies, bodily functions, and the senses. I hesitate to call it sensual because it was more than that. Oliver has a very acute awareness of how a body can react to grief, sickness, fear, and the whole panoply of emotions.) Marianne is struggling after the death of her younger sister. Never someone with a firm sense of self, Marianne flounders in apathy. Weighed down by grief and […]

…a store that carries a wondrous assortment of little treasures all needed by someone but not quite desired enough to be sold anywhere else.

Funky Dan and the Pixie Dream Girl by Courtney Lanning

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CBR14 BINGO: Funky square (Googled “funky” for kicks. Could not ignore this title. Could you? That title and cover are perfection. Felt like Cannonball Bingo kismet.) Okay. This book had all of the bones of an outrageous fantastical romp. Indebted to a witch, a cursed man (Dan) is tasked with running a store full of magical doo-dads (Funky Dan’s) in a small Arkansas town. He can’t leave the building until this debt is paid. If he does, worms eat him from the inside. He knows this […]

But who ever really knows the experience of another?

Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout

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CBR14: Scandal square (I may be overreaching because this book is not about a singular scandal but it’s full of scandalous behavior: spouse & child abandonment, serial infidelity, and Nazis. Many skeletons in fancy walk-in closets.) This book is Strout’s third novel in the “Amgash Series” about a character named Lucy Barton. A fourth in the series is expected to be published this year. I did not read the proceeding two novels because I didn’t know this was part of a series. In any event, in […]

So many people spent their lives wishing to be understood. All Alice wanted was more time.

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

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CBR14BINGO: Time Square (Hitting the nail on the head here. Very literal. Time in the title. The whole plot is about Time. You get it.) Alice is about to turn 40. A milestone birthday for anyone, but particularly for someone who generally keeps their life on an unproblematic even keel. She lives in New York City where she grew up. Works in the admissions department of her old high school, walking the same hallways of her youth. She even has a convenient boyfriend that doesn’t make […]

..they suspended their arguments, united for once in their astonishment at the unusual spectacle of an elephant lumbering across the square.

The Elephant of Belfast by S. Kirk Walsh

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CBR14 BINGO: Elephant Square (Another literal one. Sometimes googling for the square yields great results, sometimes not so much. ) In 1940s Belfast, a young woman working at the local zoo sees the arrival of a new baby elephant as her opportunity to prove herself. Hoping to become the first female zookeeper at the Belfast zoo, Hettie quickly takes on the responsibility of handling the elephant in addition to all of the menial responsibilities delegated to her. Work is her escape after Hettie’s father abandons […]

You are not the arbiter of knowledge, sir. You are its librarian.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

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CBR14 BINGO: Question square (I was going to give this the Gaslight square until I read the author’s note: “This book began as two simple questions: Do words mean different things to men and women? And if they do, is it possible that we have lost something in the process of defining them.” Question square it is.) This one will definitely be on my favorite books of the year list. Hearbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure. Esme’s father is an Oxford lexicographer working on creating the […]



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