Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

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This book was meant to be a palate cleanser for me as I needed to put down the heavy non-fiction book I was reading about mental health (While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence). Woof. I’ve begun interacting more in Threads and asked that community for a fun book, and someone mentioned that Kevin Kwan (he of Crazy Rich Asians) had a new one out and I was sold: over-the-top and silly was just what I […]

a thousand apologies and what feels like a thousand reviews (through November 2023)

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Kindred by Octavia E Butler

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Hinumegin er mars by Sólrun Michelsen

Trust by Hernan Diaz

How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones

The Establishment: And How They Get Away with It by Owen Jones

In the Beginning was the Sea by Tomás González

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

The City & the City by China Miéville

A History of Burning by Janika Oza

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin

Passion Simple by Annie Ernaux

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller

The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain by Brett Christophers

The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray

Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir From Within by Rory Stewart

Rivals by Katherine McGee

Reign by Katherine McGee

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

The Iliad by Homer, Emily Wilson

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

10 Things that Never Happened by Alexis Hall

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy

A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The Starting Over Game by girl_with_kaleidoscope_eyes

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Edinburg by Alexander Chee CBR15: Sex True fact, when someone British asked me what I was reading I pronounced this “Edin-BERG” and to their credit they didn’t laugh but instead asked, with some horrified sincerity, if that’s how Americans say it. It’s not! At least, not on purpose. It’s just how can the English language claim to have been invented in a country that seems to not have grasped even a shred of understanding of how the various letters in it work? I digress. This is […]

A Book Mostly About Food Reminds You to Eat the Rich

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

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Re-read because I came across the clip at the very beginning on YouTube and then wanted to re-read the book and now it is an hour and a half later and this was a BIG mistake. UGH. After having read Sex and Vanity I also thought of this book fondly, but upon re-reading I’m forced to admit it’s actually not as great as I remember. I think the parts that are tbe best are all the middling bits that aren’t plot-driven–where Kwan is sharing peeks into Singaporean […]

A Ostentatious Room With a Boring View

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

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Two things. First is, while I didn’t read the summary for this book ahead of time, the A Room with a View vibes are VERY strong with this one (Lucy/George should just be the giveaway). Happy to report, Ms. Rabin, that your lessons on this book were vivid and strong enough to last many many years later. Second is, a friend of mine pointed out that the romance element of Crazy Rich Asians was pretty weak. This is not a false statement! Nick Young is a sketched out man, […]

CBR12 Book Bingo – Green

Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan

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To round out the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, I had to read Rich People Problems. I say “had to” because this was my least favorite of the three. However, I felt invested in the characters, and I love to tie a nice bow on a good series, which, altogether, I think it was. It was certainly an entertaining distraction from the events of 2020. It’s been about two months since I’ve read Rich People Problems, and I think it speaks to the quality of the book when I say that I […]

Never saw the movie, and the book has not inspired me to do so

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

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Bingo Review 6: Adaptation I never did go see the movie Crazy Rich Asians, but when it first came out and was such a big hit, I thought it sounded entertaining, and picked up the book. It’s been on my shelf ever since. I haven’t gotten to it until now because I often don’t like general fiction novels or romance. This book was written very much as a romantic comedy, and much of the plot follows the expected trajectory of boy and girl are getting […]



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