Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Not the right chemistry for me

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

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Bingo 12: School Some of the more significant moments especially towards the beginning of Lessons in Chemistry, as well as some later generally consistent episodes related to school work and learning put this one in the School spot. It’s no secret that being female in academia has been a challenge for a significant part of history, and Lessons in Chemistry starts with the worst parts of the 1950s-1960s horrific treatment of women in higher education (seriously, there should be a CW for the assault scene). […]

I’ve got mixed feelings about this one

Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel by Bonnie Garmus

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Lessons in Chemistry is a novel of extremes. It details horrible loss and heartbreak, but it also delivers moments of humor. Its main female character suffers misogyny, abuse, and  debasement, but she also finds the courage to fight back tirelessly and valiantly not just for herself but for others. It’s generally an enjoyable read, but my overall impression is that it was rather fantastical. Despite every bad thing in the world happening, somehow our unlikely downtrodden protagonist perseveres. Nothing wrong with that, but given that […]

Cooking, Sexism, Rowing, and Chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

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I think Lessons in Chemistry had been recommended to me no less than 10 times, by different people, before I decided to give it a try. I don’t know why I delayed reading it, probably mostly because I was trying to complete my 2023 reading challenge and couldn’t figure out how to make this fit. But this year’s challenge required a book set 24 years before I was born, and Lessons in Chemistry fit the bill! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Based on […]

Let Her Cook

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

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This is my first ever audiobook experience. I decided to take the plunge because Spotify Premium is now offering 15 hours of listening per month as part of a membership. I am also currently reading a physical book that will probably take me close to a month (hint: Russian names) so I decided to shift some of my copious podcast listening time to audiobooks. So why was Lessons in Chemistry my first “read” in audio format? Well, I’ve always been a little resistant to listening […]

a thousand apologies and what feels like a thousand reviews (through November 2023)

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Kindred by Octavia E Butler

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Hinumegin er mars by Sólrun Michelsen

Trust by Hernan Diaz

How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones

The Establishment: And How They Get Away with It by Owen Jones

In the Beginning was the Sea by Tomás González

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

The City & the City by China Miéville

A History of Burning by Janika Oza

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin

Passion Simple by Annie Ernaux

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller

The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain by Brett Christophers

The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray

Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir From Within by Rory Stewart

Rivals by Katherine McGee

Reign by Katherine McGee

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

The Iliad by Homer, Emily Wilson

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

10 Things that Never Happened by Alexis Hall

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy

A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The Starting Over Game by girl_with_kaleidoscope_eyes

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Edinburg by Alexander Chee CBR15: Sex True fact, when someone British asked me what I was reading I pronounced this “Edin-BERG” and to their credit they didn’t laugh but instead asked, with some horrified sincerity, if that’s how Americans say it. It’s not! At least, not on purpose. It’s just how can the English language claim to have been invented in a country that seems to not have grasped even a shred of understanding of how the various letters in it work? I digress. This is […]

“Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment to herself.”

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

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#CBR15 Passport Challenge: Books recommended by friends Elizabeth Zott is a chemist struggling to be taken seriously by her male colleagues at a lab in the 1960s. She never completed her degree because her academic advisor raped her, but her lack of degree in no way means she’s not intelligent. Despite her brilliant mind, her male co-workers either treat her as nothing more than a lab assistant or steal her research and present it as their own. The one exception to this is Calvin Evans, […]



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