Valley of the dolls is about three women and their path into and along stardom. Anne is a frigid woman from New Jersey who moves to New York and gets a job for a theatre-lawyer-guy. She gets proposed to immediately by a wealthy guy, but turns him down for an Englishman with glorious hair. He, in turn, dumps her because he’s an artist, and then Anne becomes a famous model for a make-up brand. Anne meets Neely O’Hara, back when they’re still poor. Neely can […]
The opportunity cost of mobile devices
“…mobile consumers now spend an average of two hours and fifty-seven minutes each day on mobile devices.” Waiting in line to check out? Fire up Candy Crush. On your commute? Get caught up on blogs or YouTube vids. One laaaast round of checks on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter before the theater darkens for the movie previews. (And then another check when the lights come up to catch what you missed.) We have the option to never, ever be bored. There’s always something, somewhere willing to […]
I don’t want to review this book.
This brief audiobook gave me a bit of an existential crisis. It’s billed as a funny memoir-type-thing written by a comedian. It says so right on the cover. Which is why I spent the first half of the book asking myself, “Is this humor? What is humor? Is anything humor? What is life? Why am I here?” It wasn’t that it was a bad book, exactly, although it wasn’t great. It just wasn’t funny at all. Delaney covers his early life and youthful misadventures and…maybe […]
Finding Libbie
Emily is a young woman, in her early thirties who is helping her grandmother pack up the family farm. Her grandmother had sold the farm like most people in the area to developers. It is in her packing that she discovers a secret about her father, he had been married before he married her mother. We then travel back in time to see her father, Jack, and Libbie’s story. Jack and Libbie are opposites in town. Libbie lives on the lake in town where all […]
Book Club Discussion Post: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
We have reached the day – it’s time to discuss The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. There have been many positive, and introspective reviews of the book both since our announcement of its choice for this book club, and over the years of Cannonball Read’s existence. So, let’s dig in and talk about the why’s and how’s with this book, and some larger thematic conversations as well. Let’s start with a few ground rules: Since we’re anticipating lots of conversation, […]
Realistic (and slightly depressing) Hockey Romance
This is the second book in this series. I liked the first one, but said that I wouldn’t seek out the others – except this one went on sale for $1, and that was good enough for me! The big conflict in this one is probably the most realistic I have come across in a contemporary romance. There’s no high drama or tragic backstory, just two people who connect, but are not sure how to make a relationship work. Scott Walters is a hockey player […]