Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Just because I’m a librarian doesn’t mean I have to dress like one.”

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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I am delighted to get to write this review on International Women’s Day. It’s an amazing story about a woman, written by two other women and it’s SO FREAKIN’ GOOD. Go get this book! (Seriously. Go get it. I’m going to sell you on wanting to read it during the rest of my review, I promise, so you might as well “add to cart” now). This book is another great selection of the Schaumburg Library book club so SHOUT OUT to the public library for […]

Maude Horton’s (Not So) Glorious (Semi) Revenge

Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook

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Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the content of my review. Okay, first, I’m going to take the chance here that I’m going to sound ungrateful, but I mean this in the spirit of genuine feedback. Only giving out a PDF file for your ARC does not really encourage readers. It is very hard to read, limiting the devices on which it can be read. I could only read on my phone, which is a guaranteed recipe for […]

Weird West

Lone Women by Victor Lavelle

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“On Tuesday, Adelaide Henry had been a farmer. On Wednesday, she became a fugitive.” This is the story of Adelaide Henry who in 1915 takes off from her home in California in possession of a steamer trunk that has something trapped inside it.  Her parents are dead, and Adelaide is headed to Montana, planning to be a “lone woman” and going to homestead for two years before earning the land she has made viable for herself.  But the something in that trunk is going to […]

“The closer you are to life, the closer you are to death, her grandmother had told her.”

Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling

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When I was looking for a historical fiction written by an indigenous author I knew right where to go because back in 2021 the Indigenous Reading Circle was featured in a Reading Women Podcast Reading Challenge, and I’ve been following them on Instagram ever since. This year they are highlighting native women in fiction and Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling, a complicated coming of age set on the Flathead Reservation in the 1940s, was their February selection.  The story follows Louise White Elk as she approaches adulthood. […]

Choosing to create a full life despite being imprisoned by circumstances

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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A Gentleman in Moscow was my book club’s pick for February, otherwise I likely would never have picked it up.  Amongst our tiny group one person noped out, one person was struggling 100 pages in (unknown if they finished it), but I found myself curious and kept going.  While the writing could ramble, sometimes giving asides that have no pertinence to the story, I found myself drawn into the tiny world of Count Alexander Rostov sentenced to live the rest of his life at the Metropol […]

Women In Power

The Great Mrs. Elias by Barbara Chase-Riboud

Domina: The Women Who Made Imperial Rome by Guy de la Bédoyère

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Over the week, I read two great accountings of women in power in very different contexts. It felt natural to include them both in one review. The Great Mrs. Elias **** I knew very little about Hannah Davis going into this, which helped as it read like a page-turner. Barbara Chase-Riboud does a great job in story form of presenting Hannah’s plight and the tough choices she had to make. The dialogue could’ve used some sprucing up, but otherwise, I really enjoyed this quality work of […]



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