Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Dreaming of Manderly…

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

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“I wanted to go back again, to recapture the moment that had gone, and then it came to me that if we did it would not be the same, even the sun would be changed in the sky, casting another shadow…” The narrator crosses paths with Maxim DeWinter while in Monte Carlo serving as a companion to the abhorrent Mrs. Van Hopper.  When Mrs. Van Hopper falls ill, our young female finds herself spending more and more time with the mysterious Maxim.  At first all […]

The trajectory of choices

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

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I spent the last several minutes trying to locate a passage in The Glass Hotel that demonstrated both the quality of the writing and the premise of the novel. I came up short. The problem with The Glass Hotel, which is a very good book bordering on great, is at times it feels steeped in metaphor that has no clear meaning the reader can ascribe. Takeaways from the novel will likely vary from reader to reader and I think it may change depending on the […]

2 Perspectives, 1 Great Story

I’m Not Dying With You Tonight by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal

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Cbr12bingo Friendship I’m Not Dying With You Tonight is a perfect book for the times we live in and would make a great pick for a book club, a community read, middle school and high school students, and their parents. Lena and Campbell are seniors at an Atlanta high school, and other than that they have little in common. They would probably have never had more than cursory interaction with one another if not for the fight and ensuing riot that started at a football […]

She’s fine but I’m a mess

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

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Cbr12bingo Book Club Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine begins with the premise of many a romantic comedy but takes the reader into serious and unexpected territory. Gail Honeyman’s debut novel, which garnered numerous awards, tells the story of 30-year-old Eleanor from her unique and often hilarious point of view as she plans to win over the man of her dreams. Yet Eleanor’s romantic aspirations are only a small part of this entertaining and thought-provoking novel which examines depression, abuse, and the power of true friendship. […]

Ghost Story

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The author’s note to National Book Award nominated YA novel Thirteen Doorways states that  “… it is … a story about girls. Girls with ambitions, brains, desires, talents, hungers. It is a story about how the world like to punish girls for their appetites, even for their love.” Inspired by the author’s mother-in-law’s real life experience in a Chicago orphanage in the 1940s, Thirteen Doorways is the story of Francesca (Frankie), a teen who along with her older brother and younger sister has been left […]

A Cinderella Story/The Godfather

Wolf Hall: A Novel by Hilary Mantel

Bring Up the Bodies: A Novel by Hilary Mantel

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After a prolonged break, Hilary Mantel finally returned to the Wolf Hall trilogy this year with The Mirror and the Light, the final installment in the fictionalized account of the rise and fall of the real Thomas Cromwell, a talented man who rose from humble beginnings to become Master Secretary and consigliere to King Henry VIII. I read the first two books when they came out (in 2009 and 2012) and thought they were fantastic. Both won numerous prestigious prizes including the Man Booker Prize […]



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