Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I was sixteen. I lived inside of myself way more than I lived inside of this town.

Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson

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I started grabbing everything I could find and I had no idea what other people thought was good or what was important. And so I almost never told anyone what I liked because I was terrified that they would tell me how stupid it was. Every single thing that you loved became the source of both intense obsession and possible shame. Everything was a secret. ― Kevin Wilson, Now Is Not the Time to Panic Frankie is a sixteen-year-old girl with three feral older brothers […]

Is shooting someone in the arm art?

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

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I’ve read Nothing to See Hear by Kevin Wilson, and really liked the creativity and tone of the novel. So, when my book club chose The Family Fang (2011) by Wilson, I was excited for more of the same. Although this book was still unique and creative, I did not like it as much as Nothing to See Hear. We did have a good discussion at my book club, and I learned a bit about some of the history of performance art. However, I never felt as connected or sympathetic […]

It was beautiful, and then somebody else, the rest of the world, made it not beautiful.

Now Is Not The Time To Panic by Kevin Wilson

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I used to spend a month every summer visiting my dad in a household that was absolutely free-range. It was the late 1970s and early 1980s so that wasn’t that unusual, but it was certainly a more unsupervised and fend-for-yourself-until-dinner situation than I experienced with my mother. I have very distinct memories from that time, hanging out across the street with a neighborhood girl my age. Both of her parents worked so we would spend all day in the air conditioning watching MTV, drinking (sometimes […]

I prayed this was not the doctor. “I’m the doctor!” he said, waving to the children.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

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I thought it over. Dollywood. “Islands in the Stream.” That body. She was the best thing that had ever come out of Tennessee. Jesus Christ, it wasn’t even close. ― Kevin Wilson, Nothing to See Here I’ll admit it. I chose this book because of its cover. The combination of the title plus a cartoon wrapped in flames immediately made me curious to see if the author shares the same dark sense of humor as I do. It turns out, they do. Nothing to see […]

OK, I did like this book

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

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I’ve gone back and forth on this book. When I started writing this post I felt like there wasn’t really much to it, an intriguing plot and not much else. But now, coming back to it about a month later (and after having meditated this evening) I think there’s something more to it. Lillian, a former gifted child now living a listless life in her hopeless hometown, gets a letter from her best friend Madison with a job offer. It doesn’t sound that appealing, but […]

“This is weird, Madison. You want me to raise your husband’s fire children.”

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

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My book club chose Nothing to See Here (2019) by Kevin Wilson as our next read. I knew nothing about it and had no expectations. In fact, in my head I had it confused with another book I’d seen on some list. So when I began, I was very confused that the protagonist/narrator was a present-day woman living with her mom. However, I quickly figured out my mistake, and I thoroughly enjoyed this quick, humorous, yet still touching novel. Lillian is 28 years old and living […]



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