Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I think, in this case, ‘alligator tears’ would be a more appropriate wording.”

Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida by Mikita Brottman

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Two couples in Florida make up a close knit quartet of best friends, until one husband vanishes while out duck hunting, sparking a long running mystery that will remain unsolved for more than a decade. In the annals of true crime, murder as the solution to an affair is a common occurrence, mundane even when stacked up the ranks of serial killers and mass murderers who generally get top billing. But even a ‘mundane’ crime is a story in itself, and the people they victimize […]

The Game is Afoot

All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon

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In an effort to shore up their faltering marriage, Becca and Blake go away for the weekend to a 1920s-themed murder mystery hotel. But when the actress playing the maid disappears, Becca suspects that a real crime might have occurred. I’ve always thought murder mystery dinners would be fun. I’ve never been to one, but I like stories and I like puzzles, and besides nothing that inspired the Edgar Allen Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party could be dull. I was intrigued by the idea of […]

A Modern Day Epic

Love Warrior: A Memoir by Glennon Doyle

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“Her ability to put words to her feelings and experiences is absolutely incredible,” I told my husband. “She truly has a gift.” Love Warrior is an epic, and just like the ancient oral traditions, it reads like a poem retelling Glennon Doyle’s battle through bulimia, alcoholism, sexual abuse, and infidelity. I couldn’t put it down. I could pull hundreds of quotes from the book that popped from the page screaming, “Remember me!” This will be a book I reread numerous times. In times of despair, Doyle […]

not a series, but out of order none the less

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

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My complaint against Conversations with Friends is wholly not the fault of the novel, the writer, or the characters within. My complaint is petty. I am being spoiled in lamenting that Conversations with Friends is not another Normal People. I know. It’s a wild assumption, I should know better, and the like- but Normal People was perfect. Conversations with Friends is a stepping stone on the path of Sally Rooney, and I wish that I had heeded a friend’s recommendation and read this one first! That being said, Conversations with Friends also worms a way into […]

The Repercussions of Drugging Unwitting Children (And Other Things)

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  This book was one of those that I liked, but I also didn’t much like it, or at least I didn’t really like or understand the characters in it. Yes, that’s it exactly. I didn’t understand a single one of the many characters in this book. And that’s not entirely my fault. In Commonwealth, one of the children of a blended family falls in love with a much older writer and ends up telling him stories about her childhood. And he ends up writing […]

If I’m a bitch and a fake, is there nobody who will love a bitch and a fake?

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What a lovely book. A woman named Sarah (seemingly!) abruptly ends her affair with a writer named Bendrix. Bendrix bumps into Sarah’s distraught husband some time later, who reveals that Sarah seems to be having an affair. Jealous that she might have a new lover, Bendrix takes it upon himself to hire a private investigator “for Henry.” The investigator gets his hands on Sarah’s journal and Bendrix discovers what’s really gone on. This book was of particular interest to me because of my great grandmother. […]



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