Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

‘She’s very good at stalling. Masterfully manipulative’

My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress (2022) by Rachel DeLoache Williams

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Note: Contains spoilers for Inventing Anna (2022) and My Friend Anna (2019, 2022) If you’ve watched Inventing Anna (2022) on Netflix, you know who Rachel is–the young woman who starts off optimistic and well-meaning, excited about her new friendship with Anna Delvey (and the luxe life that comes with her), and ends up anxious, then frantic, then an embittered nervous wreck, on the verge of losing her job at Vanity Fair. As opposed to the steely and poised Anna, whose tears and passion are carefully […]

All Hail the Queen

The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis

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Netflix’s adaptation of The Queen’s Gambit was one of my favorite things of 2020. After blitzing through all seven episodes I even started playing chess again and enjoying it despite how terrible I am. Between Anya Taylor-Joy’s incredible performance, the unique subject matter, and the incredible vintage clothing there was a lot to love. So I eagerly snapped up a copy of the source material and plunged in. The danger of course with reading a book after seeing the adaptation is that the book will […]

Harrowing

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

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Technically, I finished this book about an hour before the calendar ticked over to 2020, but it still counts to CBR12! The fact that I was reading that late on NYE gives you an insight into the intensity of this book. I simply couldn’t put it down as it reached it’s crescendo. Bird Box is a psychological paranormal thriller about the end of the world, told through the eyes and ears of Malorie – a women holding it all together for the sake of those […]

Bird Box – The Post-Apocalyptic Book that Dreams (Nightmares) Are Made of

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

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I discovered this book all on my own, a little unknown unassuming book at the library. (Jk. This book is everywhere). Unless you’ve been gone in some remote location you have heard of this book, or at least, heard of the Netflix movie of the same name, starring America’s favorite FBI beauty contestant, the delightful Sandra Bullock. Sandra is having a pretty bad time though, in his post-apocalyptic dystopian nightmare, where the sight of something, some unknown creature, drives people almost instantly mad and violent […]

Madness, Illness, Grief, and The Haunting of Hill House

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Beware of mild spoilers … I recently finished watching The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix. But it is still with me. It was at times an uncomfortable watch, but it also may be one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time. It can’t really be called an adaptation of the immortal Shirley Jackson novel. That classic book could be considered more of a jumping-off point for this, an original, deeply-felt horror story. The original novel, first published in 1959, concerns a […]



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