Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

My father, unlike so many of the men he served with, knew just what he wanted to do when the war was over.

The Risk Pool by Richard Russo

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CBR12Bingo Pandemic – This is the second novel by the American novelist Richard Russo, and the second of his that I’ve read. On the cover we’re told in a blurb that that reader loved the characters in this novel the way he loved the characters in John Irving’s The World According to Garp, and while I can see that comparison in a way, I feel this is more of a case of Saul Bellow than John Irving, if we’re looking for forbears. The novel takes […]

“Memories are always bent retrospectively to fit individual narratives”

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

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Bingo Square: Book Club This is a difficult book to describe, as shown by the blurb which I found almost impenetrable and which doesn’t do it justice. Mostly it’s about a young woman named Vincent, and how she becomes involved with Jonathan Alkaitis, a very successful businessman who is actually running a Ponzi scheme. We also meet several of his investors, and see how they are affected when the scheme collapses and Alkaitis is arrested. As a young teen, Vincent’s mother drowns in a canoeing […]

Baking Hollywood Style and It’s Actually Worth It

How To Bake by Paul Hollywood

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Bingo Book Review 20: Repeat (of the How To variety) I was feeling a little off balance and I did a little retail therapy; for me that meant the bookstore. I decided on an impulse to go with the title I share with you now: Paul Hollywood’s How To Bake. I’ve been a fan of the Great British Bake-Off (or Baking Show if you’re in the US) for years, and I have several of the series cookbooks. I also have one of Mary Berry’s baking […]

Paternoster Qui Est inFinitum

Beyond Infinity by Eugenia Cheng

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Bingo Book Review 19: White Whale I think it was about 3 years ago when I read How to Bake π, mostly liked it, and went out to get the author’s subsequent book Beyond Infinity. I started it, got bored after about a chapter, and it’s been sitting on my coffee table since then. I’ve promised myself every now and again that I’m going to finish off the 3-4 books that I’ve started at some point and not finished, so this time it was Beyond […]

“They were the minorities of this world whose only recourse was to join this universal orchestra, in which all there was to do was cry and wail.”

An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma

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CBR12 BINGO: UnCannon BINGO: UnCannon, Nostalgia, Yellow, Happy, Repeat The description for the “UnCannon” category in CBR12 Bingo advises the reader to “Challenge yourself as much as you are able.” So while I could have picked up any book by a female author (of which there are many on my TBR list) to satisfy this category, I chose to read something by 34-year-old Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma. My husband read An Orchestra of Minorities last year and raved about it, so I decided now would […]

The bridge is love

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

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Cbr12bingo Roaring Twenties I know I read this book in high school, but I didn’t remember much about it before re-reading it this week. I think it’s the kind of novel that means more to you the more you’ve lived and seen of the world, and reading it in our very troubled times was a kind of balm for the soul. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, published in 1927 and winner of the 1928 Pulitzer, is the fictional story of five people whose lives […]



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