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:

Thoughtfully burning down the house

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

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Adapted into a limited series by Amazon Prime, Ng’s book follows the intersecting lives of two families in Shaker Heights, Ohio- single mother Mia and her teenage daughter Pearl, and the Richardson family, parents Bill and Elena and their four teenagers Lexi, Trip, Moody and Izzy.  After Mia and Pearl become Elena’s tenants in her rental property, the two families gradually become more involved in each other’s lives- Moody and Pearl become fast friends, Mia agrees to be a part-time housekeeper for the Richardson’s and […]

One for the times

Pale Rider by Laura Spinney

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In some very serendipitous timing, we ordered this book back in the fall, shortly before coronavirus made the news out of China.  Spinney’s history of the 1918 flu pandemic has become so very relevant, and luckily this history is also very readable- she is a science journalist, so has lots of practice translating science jargon and telling non-fiction stories.  The book is split into a number of sections with different focuses: the world that that flu emerged into (religious, superstitious, viruses as yet undiscovered, teeming […]

The Law School Scam, with a side of beaches

The Rooster Bar by John Grisham

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John Grisham’s 25th legal thriller centers on three law students, Todd, Mark and Lola, who are about to enter their final semester. Unfortunately, their law school, Foggy Bottom, is a bottom tier school charging top tier prices, and once they graduate into a saturated market their degrees may be nearly worthless while their debt will be astronomical.  When a shared personal tragedy causes them to rethink their life choices, they abandon their plan to graduate for one of assumed identities and ‘unauthorized legal practice’ in […]

Problematic nostalgia

The Mountain of Adventure by Enid Blyton

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This is the second Enid Blyton I’ve read this year and this one, like the Adventurous Four, is a nostalgic throwback but with some things that have not aged well. The 1949 novel features a different set of four children than in Adventurous Four, but still follows the same pattern: unsupervised children ‘having an adventure’.  These particular four children are two sets of siblings- Philip and his sister Dinah and Lucy-Ann and her brother Jack.  The four are on a summer vacation in rural Wales, […]

I hated it so much

Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag

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If you subscribe to the Tucker Carlson school of policing, this is a thriller for you.  For everyone else, I would advise looking elsewhere for better written characters, less clichés and a more nuanced view of law and order in Minneapolis. The action opens with our soon to be damsel in distress, Minneapolis Judge Carey Moore, making a private chambers decision to prevent evidence of ‘prior bad acts’ being introduced into a murder trial she is presiding over.  Hoag’s villain, a loner with a fetish […]

Reading the rainbow for CBR Bingo

Butterflies are Free by Leonard Gershe

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Written by Leonard Gershe, who also wrote the script for the Audrey Hepburn film Funny Face, Butterflies are Free is a play that premiered in 1969 with Blythe Danner (Gwyneth’s ma) in one of the starring roles. It was adapted into a 1972 film starring Goldie Hawn and Eileen Heckart, the latter of whom won an Oscar for best supporting actress.  Who knew?!  My background prior to the google search that provided that info was that my parents went to college for performing arts in […]



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