Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

How to save the community center

How to age disgracefully by Clare Pooley

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This was a fun read – it feels very much in the same tradition as novels like Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murder or The Thursday Murder Club. To be clear, this one doesn’t have a murder (just an unfortunately timed death when a ceiling partially collapses) but it has a similar mix of zany characters that come together and enrich each other’s lives. I know I have read other non-murder examples of this kind of story but my brain isn’t working enough to think […]

clare pooley is now on my to-read list, but also “break in case of emergency” list

How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley

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Totally delightful book, read immediately, especially if you, like me, enjoyed Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting. But read that first, because if so there’s a little inside joke referencing Iona here! If I had to guess Pooley herself is likely working through some culturally imposed messaging around the worth of elderly (women) in a society that valorizes youth. She of course has explicit sources of inspiration for each novel–this one, in particular, came from reading about a (spoiler) by 60 year olds and wondering what it would […]

Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

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I really really enjoyed this. I laughed out loud a few times and was honestly surprised by the direction of some of the characters’ stories in this one. I have to say though, read this one if you feel a bit down in the dumps, it does give you hope that everyone you meet can’t be all that bad. I loved the character of Iona and the others too. Piers (I hate that name) was at first blush, not awesome, but he grew on me. […]

“nonetheless, she persisted” — and in style

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

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CW: remembering now that there is a relationship that is (non-violently) abusive, sort of early stage emotional, except that it’s choreographed well in advance and there’s never any doubt in your mind that it’ll end well (and it does). I think this was a Goodreads recommend, in a subgenre I will call “nonetheless, she persisted” (Lessons in Chemistry comes to mind as the most recent example of this genre that I read). I put it on hold on a whim and quite delightfully opened it when […]

Strangers on a Train with no murder involved!

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

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It took almost a full six months, but I think I have what might become my favorite book of 2022. Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley was a wonderful surprise. I grabbed this book from a library display (to complete a summer bingo card entry “read a book from a library display”).  I had enjoyed Pooley’s previous book, The Authenticity Project, so I decided to take a chance on her latest. Iona Iverson was somebody back in her day.  She and her girlfriend […]

“Perhaps the compulsion to fill every inch of space was because it made him feel less alone.”

The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

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This was a perfectly fine book. I do not regret reading it. Ringing endorsement! It also isn’t really to my tastes anymore (though I think the me of ten plus years ago would have loved it). It feels too pat and constructed, not ‘optimistic,’ that’s not the right word . . . I don’t know how to explain it. Just saying it’s not to my taste really anymore seems easier than trying to figure it out. The premise is pretty high concept. A former artist […]



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