Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

In which I recommend an exceptionally good movie in place of this book

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery

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Scroll all the way to the bottom for movie recommendation! Is anything quite so disappointing as picking up a book that you fully expect to be a five-star read and being met with something you can only generously call mediocre? I was so excited at the prospect of learning about octopuses, those wonderful invertebrates, that I sat down with my beloved book darts, certain that I’d want to permanently tag many interesting passages. Now a few golden embellishments stare up at me from the pages, […]

It’s not easy being a woman in a man’s world

Lady Killer, Volume 1 by Joëlle Jones and Jamie S. Rich

Lady Killer, Volume 2 by Joëlle Jones and Michelle Madsen

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Someone in the CBR community recently mentioned that they are curious about how books come into our lives. I’m not typically a comic book reader (with a few exceptions), but I read this one when it came to me in the mail. More specifically, it came to my husband, a recommendation from one of his coworkers. After he read Lady Killer, he passed it on to me, thinking I might enjoy it The cover is the first thing that intrigued me: a stylish Betty Draper-esque […]

Long, yes; lovely, yes

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

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I’m staring at a 771-page novel, replete with sticky notes I’ve placed to mark passages of interest, and I don’t know where to begin. The Goldfinch is an epic tale encompassing themes of loss, fate, friendship, family, love, accountability, and the nature of art. This is a novel for which future teachers of American literature will assign very specific essay topics to their students, such as “Describe Andy’s relationship with water and how it correlates to his relationship with his family,” or “What makes art […]

Underwhelmed

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman

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I’ve heard positive things about the Netlix miniseries Unorthodox, so I was excited when Deborah Feldman’s memoir was proposed as a possible subject for my “Pandemic Book Club.” Sadly, the promising topic of a woman cutting ties with her Hasidic upbringing didn’t live up to my expectations, largely due to the blandness of the author’s writing, partially due to my absolute lack of shock at anything the book reveals. Feldman’s memoir describes her childhood, in which she’s brought up in a strict Satmar Hasidic household in […]

My 2020 Resolution and a Cannonball!

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

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In December 2019, before we knew what the following months held in store, I made a New Year’s resolution to read On the Origin of Species. I have a beautiful folio edition that I received for my birthday, and I wanted to check it off my TBR list for a couple of reasons. First, as I’ve mentioned before, I learned as an adult how much I love science. Second, and more importantly, in a country where roughly 20% of adults reject the idea that humans […]

Not sure what to make of this one

Sadness by Donald Barthelme

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A friend of mine lent me this book (in fact, was rather insistent that I read it), saying it helped define who he is today. Normally, I enjoy reading books that give me insight into what makes the people I know tick, but in this case, I read this collection of short stories, and I’m no closer to any such wisdom. Goodreads describes this collection as “masterpieces of wit, whimsy, and satire.” I enjoy a good satire, understanding that such writing isn’t intended to be […]



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