Last week I came across one of those irresistible quizzes that pop up on social media. This one promised to give you something to read based on the types of TV shows you choose to watch. Naturally, I took the quiz and then I retook and retook, because I can’t stand not knowing what other books might be out there for me. Anyway, one of the recommendations was A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena. The blurb sounded pretty good, and as it turns out, […]
The pursuit of happiness
In the introduction to Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison writes about the death of her father and the inspiration for the novel. She found herself talking to him and wondering what the men he had known were really like. For the first time, with Song of Solomon, Morrison writes from her male characters’ perspective, and these male characters are focused on flight, on some journey of their own, a pursuit after something that might bring them happiness. Macon Dead is a prosperous businessman in the […]
Why We Cannonball
Our motto here at Cannonball Read is “Sticking it to cancer one book at a time,” and I think I have found a novel that epitomizes that sentiment. Zinzi Clemmons’ debut novel What We Lose is about losing your mother to cancer. Narrator Thandi was a college student when her mother died. Through Thandi’s recollections as an adult, the reader gets glimpses of how her family, her friends, her socio-economic background, and race intersect with her experience of her mother’s illness and death, and with […]
Timely Novel on Race from almost 90 Years Ago
Nella Larsen’s novel Passing, published in 1929, is a short but powerful and provocative tale about race and racism. The two main characters, Irene and Clare, are childhood friends whose lives diverged in their teen years but intersect again as adults. Both women are fair skinned enough to pass as white. Clare has chosen to hide her past and her race from her wealthy white husband. Irene has married a successful black doctor and has a seemingly good life in Harlem. When their paths meet […]