Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

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I’m glad my kiddo had the occasion to read this book for school which nudged me to revisit it! I owned a copy (which I think is now battered at the bottom of his backpack) but nothing beats telling your kid, “Oh? What book? Yeah, we have that one.” I can’t imagine a summary of this classic is needed, buuut just in case, Bradbury basically foretold the future in that his novel is in a future world where books are outlawed and firemen, instead of […]

Re-reading a classic: 1984 in 2020

1984 by George Orwell

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Y’all know the broad strokes of 1984: Big Brother, newspeak, telescreens, doublethink, “We have always been at war with EastAsia.” It’s entered the popular consciousness in a profound way; and for some reason thinkpieces about it have proliferated since 2016.  (I wonder why!  Truly it is a mystery.) So our small book club decided to re-read this one as adults, to see how our reactions to it might have changed, or if it was really all that.  The consensus: it’s a classic for a reason. […]

a fine final read of 2019

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

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I first came across Little Women as a child, and I came across it out of order; we had an old cloth-bound copy of Jo’s Boys on the bookshelf in my childhood home. It was next to Treasure Island, which I had devoured, and being a child I assumed that since books were next to each other they must be related. Ooops! I quickly learned the error of my ways (thanks Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library!) and settled down with an old illustrated tome. I was Jo. Who wasn’t […]



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