Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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

Wanderlustful's Reviews:

Space Opera

Dune by Frank Hebert

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I started reading Dune last year in advance of the upcoming Timothy Chalamet/Zendaya movie- turns out the great movie pushback of 2020 (pandemic!) meant I had a lot more time to read its 650 pages than I’d anticipated. This was a swift, tightly packed novel and I am very curious as to how director Denis Villeneuve (and the screenwriters) have managed to condense it to a single movie. The novel is split into three parts, and reads like a space opera: royal intrigue, hidden bloodlines, […]

Feminist Think Pieces

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

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Bad Feminist Roxane Gay is a writer and academic and Bad Feminist is her 2014 essay collection. The book is divided into a 5 thematic sections, with two very personal sections bookending three less personal sections. The more personal sections focus on Gay’s experiences as a black woman, the sexual assault perpetrated on her as a child, and her issues with mainstream feminism and its rigidity. The less personal sections contain essays with Gay’s reviews/opinions on news and culture, focusing on what this news and […]

Delightful, Jane Austen-esque mystery

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

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The Moonstone is essentially a Jane Austen novel crossed with a detective novel- the first ever detective novel!  This was an unexpected delight. The plot is very 19th century Britain: several years prior, an English military officer returned from his posting in India with dubious ownership over a very large diamond that had recently graced a Hindu temple.  When the diamond appeared to be cursed, the officer gifted it to his estranged niece, Rachel, in an act that might be malevolent or generous, depending on […]

Re-read a Year in Provence instead

Hotel Pastis by Peter Mayle

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Lavender fields, sunshine, good wine, olive oil, roman ruins- my visions of Provence are romantic and idealized, and I have largely Peter Mayle and his novels/memoirs to thank.  I first read Mayle’s A Year in Provence in my late teens, after I’d devoured Frances Mayes similar sun-drenched tales of Tuscany and imagined myself as Liv Tyler in Stealing Beauty. I was expecting Hotel Pastis to be a similar story- Mayle buys and renovates an old Provencial hotel!- and was looking forward to some relaxing armchair […]

Talk it out

Group by Christie Tate

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Christie Tate is a 40-something southern-born, Chicago-based lawyer and writer.  Group is a memoir of her adult years, heavily focused on the group therapy she began attending while in law school. We get some background on Tate’s psychological issues (eating disorder, attachment issues, etc.), as well as significant details of her love life that she shares with the members of her two therapy groups. Its an interesting and quick read, and gives a lot of detail into how group therapy works- no secrets, either within […]

Poets, politicians and pilots- a journey through local history

Remember me as you pass by by Nancy Millar

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Sam McGee was from Tennessee but despite what Robert Service’s famous poem would have you believe, he wasn’t cremated in the Yukon- he’s actually buried in the small town of Beiseker, Alberta, just east of Calgary. How McGee went from goldrush poet’s muse to a dusty prairie graveyard is one of many life stories that Miller touches on her interesting and informative journey through Alberta’s history via its graveyards- her stated intent is to tell stories backward, starting with gravestones she found interesting. Although this […]



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