Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Weird West

Lone Women by Victor Lavelle

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“On Tuesday, Adelaide Henry had been a farmer. On Wednesday, she became a fugitive.” This is the story of Adelaide Henry who in 1915 takes off from her home in California in possession of a steamer trunk that has something trapped inside it.  Her parents are dead, and Adelaide is headed to Montana, planning to be a “lone woman” and going to homestead for two years before earning the land she has made viable for herself.  But the something in that trunk is going to […]

“There are two kinds of people in this world: those who live with shame, and those who die from it.”

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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I really liked this one! But the ending didn’t do as much for me as the first 1/3 did. It all wrapped up too fast and too neatly for me. I wanted to see the struggle and the nitty gritty details! But then again, I nearly always appreciate a longer book over a shorter one, so this very could be just a me thing here and you might love it (as the rest of my book club did!) Lone Women takes place around 1915 in […]

“There are two kinds of people in this world: those who live with shame, and those who die from it.”

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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CBR Bingo – Violence Tis the season to be a little spooked! Full scaredy cat disclosure: I am not a huge horror fan, completely eschewing the genre in both film and television, but I can get down with some scary books. Maybe it’s because my imagination isn’t as vivid as images on the screen, so sometimes I like to live on the literary edge. Many of my friends are big into having the bejeebus scared out of them, so good for a recommendation, which is […]

A Woman is a Mule, or “What’s in that trunk, Adelaide?”, or a Novel of Second Chances

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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I met Victor LaValle at a literary fest a few years ago. While handing him a copy of The Changeling, which was his latest novel at the time and the book I had just finished reading, I said to him, “I feel like I’m the person you’re writing these books for. You’re writing these books for me.” And I meant it then and I mean it now. There’s a point at which LaValle started writing the books he knew he was meant to write (he has […]

An unexamined past might come back to bite you on the ass. Literally

Lone Women: A Novel by Victor LaValle

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This short novel is a fascinating combination of history and horror, where history often is the horror. Lone Women is set in a remote homesteading community in Montana in 1915. This sparsely settled country promises adventure, new beginnings, and opportunity for anyone who is willing to take on the hard work of making a life there. Even single women and minorities can have a go. But while this is supposed to be a land of opportunity where neighbors help one another out of necessity if […]



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