Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Wanderlustful

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Lawyer by day, voracious reader by night. So many books, so little time!

Wanderlustful's Reviews:

Into the Light

White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

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I first read this novel more than 10 years ago when it was published (2008) and I wanted to see if it held up before we watched the Netflix adaptation. Briefly: it sure does. White Tiger follows Balram Halwai, a lower caste man from small-town India, as he crafts his own rise to power through unscrupulous means.  The book is framed as a series of letters from Balram to the Chinese President, ostensibly for the two of them to revel in the entrepreneurship of their […]

A history of humankind that will enlighten and depress

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

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Harari’s brick of a book is an ambitious look at the history of humankind. He begins with humans as one of many Homo species and continues through to the tech age, speculating on the android evolution that may one day replace us.  In between he divides sections up based on the major shifts that moved humans forward, focusing on themes like farming, religion and capitalism. Although there was a lot in this book that I vaguely knew, Harari’s blunt birds eye view of events gave […]

The woods are lovely dark and deep

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

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In a dark medieval Russian forest, the tomboy daughter of the local chief, Vasya, just wants to continue with her wild and pagan ways- running through the woods, riding horses, communing with the minor domestic and farmyard gods. These ways put Vasya at odds with her stepmother as well as the Church, personified by the local priest.  The stepmother and the priest push Vasya’s father to marry her off, which bodes ill for the village as a whole- the bonds that keep evil forces at […]

For Readers Who Love The Help or Green Book

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

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Set in South Carolina in the 1960s, The Secret Life of Bees follows fourteen year old Lilly Owens and her black housekeeper/mother figure, Rosaleen. After some trouble in their hometown- Rosaleen gets arrested while attempting to register to vote and Lilly gets into a fight with her father about whether her deceased mother abandoned her- the two hit the road. With no real plan, Lilly leads them to Tiburon, South Carolina, a town that she believes had some connection to her mother. Once in Tiburon, […]

Whistle(down) While You Work (From Home)

Romancing Mr Bridgerton by Julia Quinn

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When I found out that the Netflix Bridgerton series was based on a Julia Quinn romance series my first thought was “I bet I have a book from that series sitting on my shelf already.”  I was right! Romancing Mister Bridgerton is the 4th novel in 9 volume series and it is the one I started with because it is the one I had.  I do not think its vital to read the series in order- although characters from the other novels make an appearance, […]

Burn it all down

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

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I will not mince words: I did not like this book. I had high expectations based on all the accolades this novel received, but those expectations did not pan out. The novel is told from the point of view of a nameless main character, whose boyfriend nicknames her Reno after her hometown. After graduating from art school in Nevada in the late sixties, she moves to New York City to try and become an artist.  Once in NYC she haphazardly falls in with a pretentious […]



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