Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Cooking, Sexism, Rowing, and Chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

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I think Lessons in Chemistry had been recommended to me no less than 10 times, by different people, before I decided to give it a try. I don’t know why I delayed reading it, probably mostly because I was trying to complete my 2023 reading challenge and couldn’t figure out how to make this fit. But this year’s challenge required a book set 24 years before I was born, and Lessons in Chemistry fit the bill! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Based on […]

My Murder: spoilers at the end of review

My Murder by Katie Williams

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mood music: invasion – Eisley My Murder is a fast-paced, science fiction mystery that immediatley drew me in. I was not familiar with the author, Katie Williams, before picking this up but I will continue to read her work as I enjoyed this novel with the exception of the ending. And the ending wasn’t necessarily bad, I just think it could have been better. I will be including spoilers at the end of this review, but the majority of this will be a brief synopsis and […]

The Maid: this book was not good

The Maid by Nita Prose

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mood music: you’re no good – Linda Ronstadt This book contains an offensive depiction of a person who has autism. To be clear, it is never expressly stated that the protagonist, Molly, has autism. She only refers to herself as “different,” and having trouble reading faces and social cues. While I am not neurodivergent, my partner is, and when I read him some excerpts from the book, he found them problematic. Molly Gray is a twenty-something-year-old maid who works at a luxurious hotel in an […]

What is the truth? **SPOILERS**

Verity by Colleen Hoover

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  This was my first time, and probably last time, reading a Colleen Hoover book. I picked it up since so many people were raving about it, saying that Hoover’s psychological thrillers are much better than her normal fare. Well, I have thoughts about this book and…yeah, they’re mostly negative. This post will have spoilers, don’t read further if you are looking to read this book. Our protagonist is Lowen, a thirty-something single author who just recently lost her mother after a long batter with […]

A Great First (Long) Book in a (Long) Series

City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams

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After carrying this book around from apartment to apartment for thirteen years, I finally made it beyond the first hundred pages and have finished the first book in the quartet. At this pace, I should be done in about 39 more years, so there’s hope! I think this really is a case of a book needing to be read at the right time. With a long train commute and a sudden urge to read Tad Williams, the stars aligned. City of Golden Shadow is set in […]

“I felt that I was now old enough to become fussy and spinsterish if I wanted to:” A Gentle Post-War Comedy of Manners

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

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This is a fast read but it has a lot of depth to it. I enjoyed it and it was the kind of book that surprises you and is counter to what you were expecting, in a good way. Excellent Women was a little outside of my normal reading pattern in that I’m not always a literary fiction type person, but this turned out to be more of a comedy of manners novel than the literary accolades suggested. And it’s good to broaden one’s reading […]



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