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:

Not academic, but that’s also not really the point

The Atlas of Happiness: The Global Secrets of How to Be Happy by Helen Russell

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If you happened to read the Little Book of Hygge that was everywhere a few years ago, this is a similarly styled (and similarly lightweight) ‘how to be happy’ guide- down to the similar pictures and easy-read formatting. Russell, who is a British journalist now living in Denmark, takes ideas and ideals of happiness from a variety of cultures, describes them over a short chapter, and then gives a ‘how to’ list at the end that gives ideas for incorporating.  While I appreciated the sentiment […]

The Girl on the Boat

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

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I have been seeing this one all over the place but hadn’t really been interested as it seemed like a The Girl on the Train knockoff.  Although it has shades of Girl on the Train, I was pleasantly surprised. We meet our heroine, Lauren ‘Lo’ Blacklock, as she is being burgled in her London flat- she comes face to face with the thief who then locks her in her bedroom while he completes his crime and escapes.  Although she is thankful to have not been […]

How green is your valley?

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

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Wohlleben is the manager of a forest trust in Germany, and over his years in the forest he has learned a thing or two about what makes trees tick.  The Hidden Life of Trees shares a number of his insights and they are mind-blowing: did you know that trees ‘speak’ to each other through their root systems?  That they can keep the stumps of relatives who have been chopped down alive for decades?  That slow growth for most tree species is a feature, not a […]

In-laws, outlaws, common-laws

Moccasin Square Gardens  by Richard van Camp

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Moccasin Square Gardens is a collection of short stories set in indigenous communities in Canada’s Northwest Territories- the title comes from the local nickname for the dancehall in Fort Smith.  There are nine short stories in this slim (155 pages) volume, and they cover a broad genre range- from science fiction and horror stories to romance and family drama.  Because of this range, your mileage out of each story might vary- my favourite were the romance and family dramas but I’m not sad about a […]

Words mean more than what is set down on paper

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first of Maya Angelou’s seven autobiographies (cbr12bingo #FreshStart), covering her early childhood up to the age of 16/17.  The memoir is set in 1932- 1944, primarily in Stamps, Arkansas, with a brief interlude in St Louis Missouri, and ending with high school San Francisco. Angelou’s autobiography begins with her parents’ divorce when she is 3 years old and her only sibling, brother Bailey, is 4 years old.  They are sent by train from Long Beach, California, […]

“Sugary elixirs of spirituality diluted in platitudes”

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

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Mitch Albom was apparently a non-fiction sports writer before switching to fiction, where he’s become a household name- I’ve been seeing Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven everywhere, from Chapters “Staff Picks” walls to the NYT bestsellers list.  Inevitably given their ubiquity, one of his books ended up in one of the free lending libraries near my house, which meant a short (free!) hop into my house. For anyone who has somehow missed this boat, the novel follows Eddie, an […]



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