Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

All things considered, this book is very mild

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho

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For a having titled his book Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, author Emmanuel Acho seems to be doing his best to not make white people feel threatened by the topics in this book. Then again, maybe I’m just out of touch with the most racist members of our society (I can only hope). In his book, the former NFL football player and son of Nigerian parents addresses topics about race and equality that many white people have been wondering about. His original idea for a […]

“Once you realize you don’t need anyone, you can take care of yourself.”

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

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I finished this book several weeks ago and have had to let it simmer before I could write my review. I enjoyed it very much, even from the earliest pages, but I’ve been struggling with some of the feelings it evoked. Although, not in the ways you might expect if you’ve read the novel. As you can probably guess from the title, Eleanor Oliphant is not completely fine. Lonely, alcoholic, and lacking any semblance of social grace, Eleanor does office work for a graphic design […]

Drop whatever you’re doing and read this book right now

The Devil Comes Courting by Courtney Milan

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Disclaimer! This was an ARC granted to me by the author, which has in no way influenced my review. I had also pre-ordered the books many months ago, because Courtney Milan is an auto-buy for me, every time. Amelia Smith is a Chinese woman raised by English missionaries in China. When she was just a little girl, her birth mother, a woman fleeing during one of the many conflicts in the country, asked Mrs. Acheson, the woman who Amelia has thought of as her mother […]

“…believing in ghosts — that’s believing that love never dies.”

The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan

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Amy Tan’s The Hundred Secret Senses is a ghost story, a history, and a testament to the power of hope and love. This is only my second Amy Tan novel, but I must say, I am riveted by her storytelling. In this novel, as with The Kitchen God’s Wife, Tan manages to tell stories of the past that have a direct relationship to the present. This time, Tan reaches 100+ years into the past, to 1865, as she tells the story of Nunumu, the peasant […]

A sweet, but ultimately slightly unconvincing romance – the rest of it was great, though

Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne

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3.5 stars Ruthie Midona is mid-twenties going on old-age pensioner, dressing like a Golden Girls-cosplayer, and has dedicated the last six years of her life to the Providence Luxury Retirement Villa. She doesn’t just work the front desk there and go out of her way to make life flow smoothly for the residents, she also lives on-site and hasn’t really had any complaints. In her spare time, she cares for the endangered turtles who populate the grounds of the retirement community, having given up on […]

“Is Tommy Lee Jones 20 or 100 in this movie?”

Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West

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Official book description: New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author Lindy West was once the in-house movie critic for Seattle’s alternative newsweekly The Stranger, where she covered film with brutal honesty and giddy irreverence. In Shit, Actually, Lindy West returns to those roots, re-examining beloved and iconic movies from the past 40 years with an eye toward the big questions of our time: Is Twilight the horniest movie in history? Why do the zebras in The Lion King trust Mufasa–who is a lion–to look out for their best interests? Why […]



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