Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

another author definitively on the must read shelf

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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This isn’t my favorite book by Reid (that’s probably still Daisy Jones & The Six, followed closely by The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo) but it’s not my least favorite (One True Loves). That being said, every book of hers is the same: imminently readable, not too frothy/not too froufrou, focusing on the emotional life of a female, and so very fiction forward. She’s…a very good writer, to put it bluntly, and can weave together stories about fictional events like very few other authors. There’s no gimmick, […]

Turn Out the Lights, the Party’s Over

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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On the night of their famous end of summer party the four Riva children would seem to the outside world to have it all. Nina, the oldest, is a famous model living in a cliffside mansion bought by her tennis-star husband. Jay Riva is a champion surfer frequently on magazine covers in photos taken by his half-brother Hudson, while youngest child Kit is still in college and a promising surfer in her own right. But as they spend the day of August 27, 1983 preparing […]

Grab bag of goodness!

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise

Cat Chaser by Elmore Leonard

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I’m starting to get behind so I’m going with the group review format. I didn’t know how to do this until now so I’m hoping this saves my season when my laziness/procrastination (fine, its mostly because of Elden Ring) prevents me from getting my reviews written. These are three books that are very different in genre, but all quite good and recommended.   Malibu catches fire. It is simply what Malibu does from time to time. Tornadoes take the flatlands of the Midwest. Floods rise […]

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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I have heard about this book for the past couple of years. I wanted to go back to read it because outside of Daisy Jones and the Six (audio version) I haven’t been able to get into Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books that much. I think my main problem is that with a lot of her work, when she’s writing about people of color, it just feels off in a way. I also thought that the greatest love of Evelyn’s life was self absorbed and manipulative. […]

Celia Sucks: A Rant About Evelyn Hugo

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Once a year it’s my turn to pick a book for my long-running book club. And every year, I choose a book about lesbians. Last time, it was The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. One of my book club friends’ grandma decided to read it also and was mildly scandalized by the fairly graphic sex scenes. This year I chose The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, mostly because lesbian Twitter called it dramatic adjectives like “gutting.” My guts stayed firmly in place, but I did […]

Surf and Secrets in Malibu

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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‘The Malibu fire of 1983 started not in the dry hills but on the coastline. It began at 28150 Cliffside Drive on Saturday, August 27—at the home of Nina Riva—during one of the most notorious parties in Los Angeles history. The annual party grew wildly out of control sometime around midnight. By 7:00 a.m., the coastline of Malibu was engulfed in flames. Because, just as it is in Malibu’s nature to burn, so was it in one particular person’s nature to set fire and walk […]



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