Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About octothorp

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I buy books faster than I can read them. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: octothorp's Quick Questions interview.)

octothorp's Reviews:

The sea section

Calypso by David sedaris

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I feel compelled to quote not the book but the back cover blurb because Lauren Hubbard said it best: “Age and family occupy beloved humorist Sedaris’s latest collection of essays. His observations feel sharper and often darker than in previous collections, as he ponders the inevitable breakdown of the human body, the shame attendant with illness and age, the nature of addiction, and the eccentricities of his family. Though middle age may have made his shades of gray blacker, the wit and incisiveness that make […]

The Cult of Ruth

Save me the plums by Ruth Reichl

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It is fairly strange reading a memoir about the height of the subject’s fame and realizing you contributed to it, that you were part of the reason that Reichl’s semi-dreaded “cult of Ruth” took place. But the way that Reichl feels about Gourmet magazine is how I feel about her writing. She writes about the early childhood infatuation with the magazine – the swordfish adorning a 1950’s cover beckoning her to delve deeper and read “the night of lobster” which transports the young Reichl and […]

Almost wasn’t

I am, I am, I am by Maggie o’Farrell

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Man, life is so flipping fragile it’s a wonder any of us survive past infancy. I work at a children’s hospital and see all the ways that one gene flips or one chromosome is duplicated or deleted and suddenly bam, your lifespan goes from 75 to 14, so I have always been acutely aware of this fact (I was real fun during pregnancy, trust me). My problem is I see the race as having been won. I’ve made it this far and so I’m safe, […]

Long tail, long time

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson

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I had a Marie Kondo moment and have been reevaluating my library, realizing how many books I’ve kept that aren’t my favorites, am unlikely to refer to again or reread, or loan to a friend.  It’s been a good purge, but I’ve had a few books I was on the fence about and wanted to reread before they hit the resell/donate pile, and this was the first. I remember liking this the first time through and found its insights valuable. The idea that marginal tastes […]

I’m a meek rider on a distracted elephant

Switch by Dan Heath, Chip Heath

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Full disclosure, I’m predisposed to love this kind of book.  Malcolm Gladwell’s rise to popularity was a boon to me as I love research into what makes people behave as they do, en masse and as individuals.  Behavioral economics is my jam. I wasn’t as thrilled by the last Heath brothers book I read, The Power of Moments, as it didn’t feel as substantive as Built to Stick, their expansion on Gladwell’s “stickiness” requirement for ideas to “tip” in The Tipping Point. This is something […]

Get Lost

Finding the Flavors We Lost by Patrick Kuh

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In his chapter on Williamsburg artisan food makers, Kuh starts to fall into the “ugh hipsters” trap and dismiss a bar’s row of empty growlers as for decor rather than use before realizing it was he who was acting pretentious. DUH. This was nearly impossible to read due to pretentiousness and dilettantism and I’m the type of person to use the word dilettante.  I have a high tolerance for pretension but this was ridiculous; the author flits from subject to subject without regard for narrative […]



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