Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

He had finished accumulating experiences and now he was shuffling around in the past, peeking inside boxes and then closing them quickly.

Extinctions by Josephine Wilson

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I struggle with books that don’t offer characters that I can root for. If a story is told through the voice of a particularly unlikable character it becomes even more difficult for me. Wilson’s novel is told from the perspective of a narcissistic widow who has little contact with his adult children, recently retired from his life’s work and moved into a retirement community. That Wilson could make this guy sympathetic is a credit to her writing. Frederick Lothian has an interesting perspective on things. […]

“Writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear”

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reed

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  This is a difficult novel to review without spoiling it but I’ll give it the old college try. An unnamed narrator is driving with her boyfriend Jake to visit his parents in their isolated home in the country. If the title wasn’t enough of a clue, the narrator tells us in the first line of the book that she’s thinking of ending things. As their journey continues, the narrator becomes continually more unsettled Jake and his parents behavior until Jake seems to abandon her […]

“Shame derives its power from being unspeakable. That’s why it loves perfectionists–it’s so easy to keep us quiet.”

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown

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Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston, has spent two decades studying shame, vulnerability, and courage. This doesn’t necessarily make her a lot of fun at parties. In fact, she jokes that when she tells people she studies shame, they look away uncomfortably and find someone else to talk to. Yet she also has five best-selling books to her name, and her  TED Talk on vulnerability is one of the top 25 most popular TED talks of all time. I hesitate to […]

The continuing adventures of Lady Sherlock

A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas

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This is the second book in a series. While it can be read independently, and probably makes sense on its own, you’d be better off starting with book one, A Study in Scarlet Women.  From Goodreads: Being shunned by Society gives Charlotte Holmes the time and freedom to put her extraordinary powers of deduction to good use. As “Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective,” aided by the capable Mrs. Watson, she’s had great success helping with all manner of enquiries, but she’s not prepared for the new client […]

“When creative people do their best work, they’re hardly ever in charge, they’re just sort of rolling along with their eyes shut yelling wheee.”

Everything's Eventual by Stephen King

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I have had this beaten-up paperback copy of Everything’s Eventual in my backpack for at least a year, reading a few pages here, a short story there. I was enjoying it, but kept forgetting it was there, usually opting to listen to Audible or read on my kindle when I had some free time. And finally, I went for a walk at lunch today, found a cute table outside a sandwich shop, and sat down to finish it. I’m pretty sure that this was only […]

Good Omens is a Love Story

Good Omens by Neil Gaimann and Terry Pratchett

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An angel and a demon have been working undercover on Earth for a long time. So long, in fact, that they’ve become friends – of a sort. Together one of them does bad and the other does good – usually according to whether they’re demon or not, but even so; they’ve been on Earth long enough to help each other out. And maybe, just maybe, they both like Earth just a little bit. “People couldn’t become truly holy, he said, unless they also had the […]



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