Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

More ways Wall Street can screw you

Flash Boys by Michael Lewis

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I’ve been procrastinating writing this review because, while Michael Lewis is one of my favorite nonfiction writers, this book proved to be a bit of a struggle for me. Maybe that’s because I’m too jaded to be surprised that banks and stock traders had found yet another way to screw over the little guy. Maybe it’s because everything I know about the stock market I learned from Trading Places, so if it’s not about pork bellies or frozen concentrated orange juice, it doesn’t arouse my […]

Before a governor of South Carolina gave “Hiking the Appalachian Trail” new meaning

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

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Would have been my True Story bingo square if I’d gotten my act together to write this up Thursday night while distributing candy! It’s hard to say whether Mark Sanford did a disservice to the adventurous hikers braving the 2,200-mile trail that runs from Georgia to Maine or whether, perhaps, he inspired a few people to give it a go by raising awareness. At any rate, this book has nothing to do with political scandals, extramarital affairs, or clandestine trips to Argentina, so if that’s […]

Well, hell, I still don’t know what the perfect society looks like

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

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CBR11bingo: Award Winner – Nebula Award for Best Novel (1974), Hugo Award for Best Novel (1975), Locus Award for Best Novel (1975) Double Bingo! Horizontal: I Love This, Not My Wheelhouse, Listicle, Rainbow Flag, Award Winner Vertical: Reading the TBR, Science!, History/Schmistory, Award Winner, Summer Read Last year I read my first Le Guin Novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, and couldn’t stop raving about it. On the advice of a fellow Cannonballer, I decided to read The Dispossessed for my Award Winner Square (tip for next […]

I don’t enjoy being a hater, but I wish this book had remained a secret

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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CBR11bingo: Listicle (Goodread’s Books That Everyone Should Read At Least Once) The introductory blurb to The Secret Garden on Amazon reads, “Opening the door into the innermost places of the heart, The Secret Garden is a timeless classic that has left generations of readers with warm, lifelong memories of its magical charms.” I must be a much more cold-hearted bastard than anyone ever suspected and am likely to be doomed to the same circle of Hell as people who didn’t cry at the opening sequence of Up, because […]

You can hate the heroine; don’t hate the novel

Atonement by Ian McEwan

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CBR11bingo: History/Schmistory (historical fiction) BINGO: Two Heads Are Better Than One, Back to School, Own Voices, Classics, History/Schmistory While having lunch with a friend recently, we started talking about books and he mentioned that he doesn’t have any use for novels that are “about writing.” On reflection, I realized I am often quite taken with novels that could be classified as metafiction (The Magpie Murders, The Word is Murder/The Sentence is Death, and, going all the way back to CBR V, The Tragedy of Arthur). So […]

Yup, still hate Beckett

Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts by Samuel Beckett

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CBR11bingo: Back to School One day a few years ago, my husband came home and suggested we see Waiting for Godot, which was being performed by a local theater company. I said, “I have a better idea, let’s schedule a couple’s colonoscopy instead, because that would be equally as fun.” Needless to say, he hasn’t broached the subject of Samuel Beckett since. But as I pondered the CBR Back to School bingo square, I wondered whether I may have been unfair. I hadn’t read any […]



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