My fifth year as a Cannonballer comes to a close with Janelle Brown’s Watch Me Disappear which centers on Jonathan Flannigan and his daughter, Olive, as they approach the first anniversary of the disappearance and presumed death of matriarch Billie Flannigan. As Jonathan struggles to make ends meet without the second income of his wife and the delay in the insurance payout because Billie’s body was never recovered Olive begins to have visions that her mother is still alive and wanting to be found. I […]
“When I was born, the word for what I was did not exist.”
Circe has been topping a lot of people’s Best Of books this year and for good reason. It is a well written, interesting take on several well known Greek myths but doesn’t require an extensive knowledge of Greek mythology to enjoy (although Madeline Miller is obviously a Greek mythology fan girl). Nymph-turned-witch Circe is the daughter of Helios; she is never meant to rule kingdoms because while she is immortal she is not a God. She finds happiness being a nanny to her siblings but […]
“It’s a brave new world, Mr. Portman, And we’ll be right behind you.”
No exaggeration- it took me an entire month to finish Ransom Rigg’s Map of Days. I could say that the lure of television, the Internet and an endless calendar of holiday activities that impeded my ability to complete the fourth installment of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children but that wouldn’t be the truth. The truth is this was an awful book but the completionist in me felt determined to ride it out. I had actually planned this to be my ‘This is the End’ bingo square […]
“We eat for our stomachs, but we hunger with our hearts.”
Happy New Year’s Eve Eve, welcome to my last minute slew of reviews to catch myself up before CBR10 officially comes to a close! I’m a big Top Chef fan, despite my occasionally toddler like food preferences, and was pleasantly surprised by host Padma Lakshmi’s memoir which covered both her career and personal life. She opens with her courtship and marriage to Salam Rushdie which, besides Top Chef, may be the thing she is most famous for doing. While her dissection of her failed marriage […]