Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I took everything I knew about comedy, then I pulled it all apart and built a monster out of its corpse.

Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby

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Nothing I say in this review is going to adequately express how generally good this book is because I keep wallowing in the ways it is impacting me personally. It is very good and I think a lot of people should read it. Especially now when there is a rising focus on driving LGBTQ+ folks further into the margins and erasing them from the present. Hannah Gadsby’s Ten Steps to Nanette has laid me out flat. Before flattening me, it knocked me for a loop, […]

I Need A Hefty Historical Saga About This Woman, ASAP

The Mistress From Chandernagore by A. B. de M. Hunter

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When Catherine, born to a French family in India, wed an Englishman from down the river, she thought she would settle down and have lots of children. But instead her life becomes a whirl of travel, scandal, spies, and romance that eventually leads her to the highest echelons of Napoleonic society. Poor student of history that I am, I do know who Talleyrand is. But I had never even considered the existence of a Mme de Talleyrand, and so was quite delighted to learn all […]

Local Man Jumps to Conclusions, Thinks He Loves A Traitor

The Meddler by Kate Archer

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Perhaps he might indicate his lack of interest in musical ability? No, that was probably not right – she might not like to be reminded that she was in the habit of thrashing the pianoforte rather than playing it. A group of women placed in high society who have always wanted daughters decide to fulfill those motherly ambitions by sponsoring impoverished young ladies. But Jasper is afraid that his mother Lady Mendleton’s choice may be a traitor… if only he hadn’t fallen in love with […]

‘And blue anemone for you, and the excitement and anticipation I feel when I think of our lives together.’

A Proposal in Provence by Donna Alward

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Anemone didn’t find out that she was the illegitimate child of the already married Lord Pemberton until after both her parents had passed away. Hoping to get to know her family better, she comes to work at their company in France. But when her identity is discovered, she’s whisked away to the countryside hide from the publicity by her charming boss Phillipe. This is the fifth book in the Heirs to an Empire series, but I followed it quite easily without having read any of […]

Probably Flexible Enough for the Home Baker

The Flexible Baker by Jo Pratt

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When I was a vegetarian, I said I would never go vegan because I love butter and cheese too much. Classic irony – a few years ago my body decided that it doesn’t like dairy (beans, nuts, and coconut are also in the no go party). So I’ll still never be a vegan because I’m no longer a vegetarian, but I also can’t eat butter and cheese. Insert cry/laugh emoji here. Baking is very important to my mental health and it’s been tough figuring out […]

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends— It gives a lovely light!

Rapture and Melancholy: The Diaries of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Daniel Mark Epstein (Editor)

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Starting in 1907 as a teenager, Edna St Vincent Millay began documenting her life in a series of diaries, ending in 1949. These diaries chart her early hopes and dreams, her rise to fame as one of the most prominent American contemporary poets, her farm life with her husband Eugen, and her struggles with alcohol and morphine addiction. I am not a reader of poetry – it simply doesn’t appeal to me terribly. Consequently my knowledge of all but the most well-known poets is a […]



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