Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Sophia

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I love to read, and I love to learn. I wish I were retired so I could spend more time on my random hobbies!

Sophia's Reviews:

Growing up at the edge of Jubilee

Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro

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Lives of Girls and Women (1971) by Alice Munro is yet another book that I picked up because it was on my list of 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40. Winner of the Nobel Prize for fiction, Lives of Girls and Women was written eight years before I was born. It takes place in rural Canada and tells the coming-of-age story of Del Jordan. This book is fiction, but the story felt semi-autobiographical and personal. I assume it must have been based on Munro’s experiences, […]

A bleak view

Them by Joyce Carol Oates

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I was really hoping that I would like Them (1960) by Joyce Carol Oates. I’m not too familiar with Oates’s work, but Them was on my list of 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40. It also won the National Book Award. I vaguely remember being generally impressed when I read We Were the Mulvaneys ages ago, so I had relatively high hopes. Also, long books are much easier to read when they capture your attention, so I was hoping I’d get sucked in and fly through it. I […]

The intern and the hockey player

Overnight Sensation by Sarina Bowen

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I think Sarina Bowen is setting up the backup goalie for a later romance, but for now Overnight Sensation (2019) is the last book in the Brooklyn Bruiser’s series; a series that showcases the many hot men involved in an NHL hockey team. For the most part, I’ve really enjoyed these books. Not only do I enjoy Bowen’s writing, but I’ve loved hockey since I was seventeen and the Colorado Avalanche came to Denver. Overnight Sensation was both fun and frustrating. Heidi Jo Pepper is the daughter of […]

This one didn’t work for me

Pipe Dreams by Sarina Bowen

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Needing a break from serious literature, I picked up Pipe Dreams (2017) by Sarina Bowen. I’d already read the first three books in Bowen’s Brooklyn Bruiser’s series, so I was eager for a little escapism. The series focuses on the Brooklyn Bruisers, an NHL Franchise, recently bought by the techie billionaire, Nate. Nate’s assistant, Lauren Conrad, used to eat and breathe hockey, when her father was in charge of the team. However, a failed romance with the team’s goalie, Mike Beacon, two years before, has her hating […]

Beautiful writing, a little too much religion

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

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I haven’t given up on my list of 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40, although I’ve come close in the past couple of weeks. The latest book I picked up was the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Gilead (2004) by Marilynne Robinson. This was a relatively short novel about an old Congregationalist minister, John Ames, near the end of his life. It primarily focuses on Ames’s perspective of life, as well as relationships between fathers and sons. It’s obviously thoughtful and well written, which I appreciated. Some […]

Hostages and Opera

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

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I picked up Bel Canto (2001) by Ann Patchett because it was chosen for my book club. And about a week after my book club met, I finally finished reading it. My tardiness in finishing should not reflect on this novel, which I found very interesting and read quickly. The problem was that I started reading the night before my book club met. An unnamed South American country (most likely Peru) is wooing Katsumi Hosokawa, a Japanese business mogul, to invest in their country. They throw a […]



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