Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Leslie

CBR13 participant

I'm an English prof who loves reading--ready to read and review books for a good cause.

Leslie's Reviews:

A Historical Page-Turner

Blood Royal by Eric Jager

by Leave a Comment

The best books about history capture what is was like to live in a particular place in time, leaning into the essential and unchanging humanity of, well, humanity. In Eric Jager’s Blood Royal (2014) it’s easy to relate to figures such as the landlord who inadvertently rents a house to unsavory characters or a woman soothing her baby who witnesses a crime. Jager even helps us relate to the person on which he focuses: the provost in charge of law and order in 15th century […]

Inclusive Romance FTW

The Companion by EE Ottoman

by 1 Comment

I don’t read much in the realm of romance (no disrespect to the genre, just not for me) but I made an exception when looking for a book to read during an indulgent post-pandemic vacation. (I know, the pandemic is not over, but so far this summer feels like a reprieve and a step toward how things used to be.) And The Companion (2021) by EE Ottoman fit the bill for a breezy, escapist vacation read. The plot is straightforward–Madeleine Slaughter, physically and spiritually depleted by […]

The Library Is a Whispering Post

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

by Leave a Comment

It’s not terribly novel to argue that libraries, far from being fading relics of the print age, are more important than ever as free, welcoming community and information centers. There’s a tweet that has circulated for a few years (apologies for not attributing it) that essentially states that, were libraries invented today, they would be labeled a communist plot. And it’s true, as Susan Orleans writes in The Library Book: “The publicness of the public library is an increasingly rare commodity. It becomes harder all the […]

Made for TV

The Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman

by Leave a Comment

I wasn’t surprised to learn, halfway through Lady in the Lake, that it was being developed into a television series. Like Little Fires Everywhere, The Undoing, and most recently Mare of Easttown, Lady in the Lake weds mystery-solving with female midlife crises (“midlife crisis” defined generously–here the protagonist is under forty and still attractive, as readers are repeatedly reminded). The novel revolves around two women in 1960s Baltimore: Madeline Schwartz, a housewife who leaves her family to rediscover herself, and Cleo Sherwood, the murdered “lady in the lake.” Told she […]

Retro But Somehow Modern (?) Parenting Advice

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

by Leave a Comment

I have heard of How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk a few times, so I knew it was something of a classic in parenting literature. I didn’t know how much of a classic, however, until I read some of the example scenarios. “Just you touch that lamp once more and you’ll get a smack!” is listed as an example of how threats don’t work, and while I agree, I cannot imagine a parenting book in 2021 even acknowledging that […]

More Than Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

by Leave a Comment

A fictional oral history-style story about a seventies rock group risks being gimmicky, on a number of levels. And indeed, aspects of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones & The Six conform to conventions and tropes rather than challenging them, from the self-centered lead singer battling his demons to the manic-pixie dream girl who never wears shoes and never shows up on time. That said, this novel defies expectations and ultimately makes some surprisingly profound observations about love, art, and gender. (And it does not, thank […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo