Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The baby is dead

The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani

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I like thrillers, so when I saw The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani on NPR’s Best Books of 2018 List, I was expecting something like Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train. When I actually began reading, I found it wasn’t exactly as I was expecting. On the one hand, this is a good book. It is well written. There are imperfect characters, and universal themes of class and women’s roles that make you think. On the other hand, this book was pretty hard to read. It wasn’t so much […]

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails.

American Prison by Shane Bauer

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Like many of the books I read this year, I found American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer on NPR’s Best Books of 2018 list. I love NPR’s list. There are so many books and genres to choose from, and most of them have been very interesting and readable. I’m eagerly awaiting their 2019 list, but I haven’t seen it yet. I really hope they haven’t discontinued it. In addition, American Prison was one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2018. Shane Bauer is […]

Think different

Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs

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I’m not very computer savvy, and I don’t have any particular interest in Steve Jobs. I’ve never even seen any of the movies about him. But I do like memoirs, so when I saw Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs on NPR’s Best Books of 2018 list, I decided to give it a try. Lisa grew up in Silicon Valley in the 1980’s. Her parents, Chrisann Brennan and Steve Jobs, were high school sweethearts (if I’m remembering correctly). Her parents were together on and off for years before Lisa’s mother […]

Carpe Diem

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

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After being comfortably single for quite some time, I got myself a gentleman friend. Fortunately, he’s a reader as well, and he was shocked when he found out that I had not read Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro. He immediately loaned me his copy, and I was thrilled to have another book to read. Fortunately, I really enjoyed this book. Perhaps it didn’t affect me as strongly as it did him, but I really liked the writing, and it made me think. When […]

Prince Harry in disguise?

A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole

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I’ve seen Alyssa Cole books around for a little while, and they looked interesting. I was going to read Duke by Default but a scene in the beginning turned me off. I didn’t ever get into it. So, instead, I eventually picked up A Prince on Paper (2019). I think I was intrigued because the character of Johan reminded me of Prince Harry and I wondered if that was done on purpose. Now I realize I probably should have started with the first book in the series. After some […]

One more romance on the spectrum

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

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I’d first heard of The Rosie Project (2013) quite a while ago but only recently picked it up to read. It is a pretty light, romantic comedy involving Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman. Don Tillman is on the autism spectrum. He’s very smart and methodical but also very awkward in social situations. Don has been successful in many areas of his life and is a tenured professor at a university in Australia. However, always awkward and misunderstanding, he’s never been lucky in love. But wanting love and […]



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