Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Books contain everything worth knowing, except what ultimately matters.”

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

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  This is a book about books, and bodies, and babies. It is a book about the things that haunt us – the things that remain, that refuse to die, so that we have to ask ourselves what purpose they are serving. This is also a book that takes place for the most part over the course of a year that begins in November 2019 – so you know what else this is a book about. The main character of this novel is Tookie, an […]

The Bingo Palace – Louise Erdrich (1994)

The Bingo Palace by Louise Erdrich

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This is novel from Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine collection of books. Generally that means a few things. Those books will be a little haunted by the two figures Nanapush and Fleur Pillager, as this book is, but it doesn’t always mean that a book will be part of a “series” in terms of a continuing chronology. Here we find ourselves in the contemporary of the 1990s and Lipsha Morrissey, a wayward and somewhat prodigal grandson, is called back home by his grandmother. While there, he […]

An Native American novel “tender with significance”

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

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“The sun was low in the sky, casting slant regal light. As they plodded along, the golden radiance intensified until it seemed to emanate from every feature of the land. Trees, brush, snow, hills. She couldn’t stop looking. The road led past frozen sloughs that bristled with scorched reeds. Clutches of red willow burned. The fans and whips of branches glowed, alive. Winter clouds formed patterns against the fierce gray sky. Scales, looped ropes, the bones of fish. The world was tender with significance.” It […]

Massive catch up, varied quality

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

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Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid This was one I did not want to have to reduce to a catch-up post but here we are, too many books and too little time. Everyone everywhere is raving about Such a Fun Age and for a damn good reason. This is the rare book that is both quality good and can’t-put-it-down good. The story opens with Emira Tucker, part-time nanny to a wealthy family in Philadelphia, helping her employer out in a midnight emergency and taking her […]

A Worthwhile Read

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

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This book tackles the true story of the government’s attempt to terminate the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa tribe in 1954. The Night Watchman follows several tribal members’ lives as they navigate this treacherous decision spurred on by a real Senator from Utah. We follow Thomas, the Night Watchman of jewel bearing plant (and he is based on the author’s grandfather), Pixie, who works at the jewel bearing plant and has dreams of a different life, and several other characters who are part of […]

Thomas Wazhashk removed his thermos from his armpit and set it on the steel desk alongside his scuffed briefcase.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

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This is the newest novel from the writer Louise Erdrich. Her previous novel was a kind of post-apocalyptic story involving pregnant native women being collected and housed to preserve population growth in a world facing crisis. So this novel hearkens back to her previous works, especially The Master Butchers’ Singer and tells a close perspective historical novel. The historical moment being told here involves the Federal government’s attempts to “liberate” the Turtle Rock band of native Americans from federal support. This “liberation” of course means the […]



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