Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Violent Delights

Truly, Madly: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century by Stephen Galloway

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Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were an iconic couple in the acting industry, with their combined talent and looks. But the turbulent thread of mental illness ran through their intense romance, ultimately tearing them apart. I only vaguely know both these figures, Leigh better than Olivier because of Gone With the Wind. However, I have always been fascinated by old Hollywood romances because of how turbulent they are, and I was excited for this one. The author has a pleasant narrative voice – he is respectful of […]

Extra Reading March 2022

Batman: The Killing Joke by Christa Faust and Gary Phillips

The Big East: Inside the Most Entertaining and Influential Conference in College Basketball History by Dana O'Neil

In The Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero

The Banks by Roxane Gay, Ming Doyle (Illustrator)

One Night, New York by Lara Thompson

The Secret Lives of Married Women by Elissa Wald

Lost and Found in Harlem by Delia C. Pitts

Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Scandal in Babylon by Barbara Hambly

Sadie by Courtney Summers

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These are the books I finished in the month of March in which I didn’t have time or words to elaborate on… Batman: The Killing Joke *** Two of my favorites team up for a Batman prose novel? Yes! But the end result is just okay. Interestingly enough, I think both writers do a better job with the random Gothamites than they do with the Caped Crusader and his primary nemesis. You’re fine just reading Alan Moore’s legendary graphic novel. The Big East: Inside the […]

Celia Sucks: A Rant About Evelyn Hugo

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Once a year it’s my turn to pick a book for my long-running book club. And every year, I choose a book about lesbians. Last time, it was The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. One of my book club friends’ grandma decided to read it also and was mildly scandalized by the fairly graphic sex scenes. This year I chose The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, mostly because lesbian Twitter called it dramatic adjectives like “gutting.” My guts stayed firmly in place, but I did […]

Horrorwood

What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin

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Read as part of cbr13bingo: pandemic This is the second time I’ve tried Alison Gaylin’s work and for the life of me, I don’t know why I can’t connect with it. The first book I couldn’t even finish because I found myself not caring about the lead. This one was a chore, even if I enjoyed parts of it. Again, even with the multiple POVs, I couldn’t bring myself to muster energy for the lead. I have mixed feelings about Gillian Flynn but there’s a […]

The eyes of a doe and the balls of a samurai.

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

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I see why this book is so much lower rated than her other two memoirs. It’s kind of scattered, and half of it is devoted to her affair with Harrison Ford, which isn’t told in a juicy manner but in a self-reflecting one, and the diaries that detailed her experience of that affair. I get why she wanted to tell this story herself; she wanted to control the narrative. It’s just . . . not super fun to read about. My favorite parts of this […]

Just the right level of Creep

Famous Last Words by Katie Alender

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“No matter how many times I vowed to quit, every night I found myself with the candle lit, the ring on my finger, trying to get through to my dad. Because I needed to find him. I needed to tell him I was sorry I killed him.” Willa and her mother are following her new Hollywood hotshot stepfather out to LA. They both hope it will be a chance for them to start over. To put to rest the notion that Willa will somehow be […]



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