Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Childhood Nostalgia / American Propaganda

The Kachina Doll Mystery by Carolyn Keene

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

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I devoured both the Nancy Drew and Little House books when I was in elementary school, so it feels a little odd to read them in such close succession now. I still enjoy them, but I’ve rather lost the cuddly feeling since then. It’s more obvious to adult me that the books were written in the expectation of reaching a certain sort of child, and that child did not look like me. The Kachina Doll Mystery – 3 stars When Nancy Drew is summoned to […]

“My castle is very different from what I planned, but I would not alter it, though, like Jo, I don’t relinquish all my artistic hopes, or confine myslef to helping othr fulfil their dreams of beauty.”

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

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I did not have reading Little Women on my Bingo card, and yet here I am. A friend mentioned offhandedly that she was watching the 90s film adaptation and two of us admitted (sheepishly) that we had never read the book (I know!) so a trio book club was born. I was surprised to remember I hadn’t read this book. (Heck, when I posted my Reel review of this book on Facebook, a classmate I haven’t talked to in years said they were surprised I hadn’t […]

“He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father.”

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

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For my last review of the year, I’m coming in hot with a classic. I’m a huuuuuge fan of a Dickens adaptation. The simple story of a jerk who is shown the error of his ways (by ghosts) and decides to live life anew, with a song in his heart and a renewed application of kindness to mankind, resonates with me. Christmas simply isn’t Christmas without watching the Muppet version of “A Christmas Carol.” Also, my husband introduced me to “Scrooged,” when we first started […]

“Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place.”

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

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On St. Valentine’s Day in 1900, three Australian schoolgirls and their teacher vanish while on a school outing at Hanging Rock. Though they have disappeared from view like a rock dropped into water, the consequences of what happened will ripple outward until they touch the stories of even those who had been on the periphery of their lives. I’ve had my eye on the book for a few months now, so when I opened my Cannonball Book Exchange package from ElCiccio to find she’d send […]

A beautiful novel, surprising for its time

Maurice by E.M. Forster

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CBR15 BINGO: Queer Lives, because it focuses on a gay man in Edwardian times BINGO: Politics, Africa, On the Road, Queer Lives, Bodies, Bodies Some spoilers included Maurice may not be E.M. Forster’s best or most famous novel, but it’s a lovely, heart-felt, and surprising story, particularly given the era in which it was created. Written in 1913, the novel wasn’t published until 1971, a year after Forster died. Homosexuality wasn’t decriminalized in the United Kingdom until 1967, so a story about love between men […]

Adventure! True love! Sex with monkeys!

Candide by Voltaire

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CBR15 BINGO: Europe, because Voltaire, he is very French It’s been so long since I read Candide that I can’t remember whether I was in high school or college at the time, yet the refrain, “Everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds” has been stuck in my head like a 1980s Mountain Dew commercial. So when I was looking for a good candidate for the Europe BINGO category, I thought, “Why not revisit Voltaire?” To sum up Candide, a young […]



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