lisa ko – Cannonball Read 17

Mixed Bag III

Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales by Michael Chabon et

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon

This Telling by Cheryl Strayed

Sweet Virginia by Caroline Kepnes

Shine Pamela Shine by Kate Atkinson

Halfway to Free by Emma Donaghue

Graceful Burdens by Roxanna Gay

Bear Witness by Mark Gaitskill

The Contractors by Lisa Ko

Sun of a Beach by Mia Sosa

The Wonderful Adventure of Nils by Selma Lagerlof

April 12, 2021 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Thrilling Tales – 2/5 Stars I’ve read this book twice previously and more or less liked a lot of the stories. But this reread was pretty sour for a few reasons. The story collection is ostensibly a genre collection of adventure stories posed off of Michael Chabon’s childhood of reading such stories. There’s probably references in the introduction to Edgar Rice Burroughs and Edgar Wallace and other Edgars. And so, when I bought and read this story in college, I felt more or less that […]

stories about WOMEN by WOMEN for WOMEN…have I said WOMEN enough yet?

This Telling by Cheryl Strayed

Graceful Burdens by Roxane Gay

Sweet Virginia by Caroline Kepnes

The Contractors by Lisa Ko

Halfway to Free by Emma Donogue

Bear Witness by Mary Gaitskill

Shine, Pamela! Shine! by Kate Atkinson

December 18, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

I’ve been sitting on this collection for a bit, as I am struggling with articulating how I feel about the group as a whole. Each story can be (and will be) handled individually, but there is something about the overarching themes of the entire collection that has left me at a loss. This is another collection from Amazon; it was free on Kindle Unlimited, I enjoyed their last collection, and I really love Kate Atkinson. Also- I was intrigued by the title: Out of Line- Women […]

“Maybe it wasn’t about the moving to new places, but about the challenge of staying put.”

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

September 4, 2020 by narfna Leave a Comment

This felt like two separate books to me, and one of them I liked much better than the other. The two central characters in this novel are Deming Guo and his mother, Polly, who is a Chinese immigrant (undocumented) from the city of Fuzhou, now living in New York (I loved the specificity of Deming and Polly insisting they speak Fuzhounese, which is a dialect of Min Chinese; this book had great cultural and historical detail like this all throughout). The first third of the […]

A cheerful story of immigration, loss, and family (Um, not really cheerful).

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

December 31, 2019 by cheerbrarian Leave a Comment

This book was a selection of my local library book club, I hadn’t heard of it and went into it knowing nothing about it; however, it was a National Book Award finalist in 2017 and received other accolades. I did go into it expecting something good and I was overall was left pleased but underwhelmed with the experience. Deming and his mother Polly live in New York city. She was born in rural China and has come to America to have a better life. When […]

Horrifyingly timely

June 5, 2018 by lowercasesee Leave a Comment

The Leavers is a story of a mother and son torn apart by American immigration officials and oof was this a tough, timely read. Just like … be ready. There are a lot of award stickers on the cover and it deserves every one. I just wish the cover didn’t look so much like the one for The Girls because ugh that book. I’m getting away from myself. The Leavers is about Polly and Deming Guo. They live in the Bronx with Polly’s boyfriend, his sister, and her […]

You’re going to be hearing more about this one

May 16, 2017 by vel veeter 3 Comments

This book has huge parts in it that are really really good. And in fact, her two main characters are so interesting and developed and satisfying, it’s a shame that the big flaw/issue I have with this book mars it so much. In this novel, a young Fuzhou boy living in New York City with his undocumented mother and various family and friends finds himself in the New York foster system after his mom disappears one day. Purportedly, she went to Florida for a job, […]

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