Joan L. Cannon

Joan L. Cannon liked to use her middle initial because so few of her maiden namesakes are left anywhere (Huguenot LaPrades). She was retired teacher, retail manager and author of three novels in paperback, Settling and Maiden Run, a collection of short stories called Peripheral Vision and her latest, a collection of poetry, My Mind Is Made of Crumbs, all available from Amazon and on order from independent booksellers.

Joan's most recent novel is Second Growth and can be purchased through Amazon. From childhood, there have been toss-ups for her avocations among reading, riding horses, painting, local flora and fauna and writing.

Editor's note: We were gifted by Joan's vibrant, inspired, writing for the website and plan to revisit her essays often. Joan passed away on October 10, 2017.

Who is the Expert on Marriage? A Typical Breadth of Experience by Today’s Younger Generation

Joan L. Cannon writes: A marriage would be a partnership in the profoundest sense. It would be the most welded commitment possible. It would presume without doubts ultimate mutual trust. It would be physically passionate, emotionally profound, mutually dependent, fully understanding of differing opinions but pliable and accepting and curious, respectful and humorous, and above all, appreciative. Maybe that is simply an annotated statement about love. Sign WHO IS THE EXPERT? Not for the first time I saw a call for a contest for manuscripts on marriage. As a theme/subject for… more »

Culture Watch Review By Joan L. Cannon: The Social Sex, A History of Female Friendship

This book reminds us how far we have come when there are more highly educated women everywhere than at any other time in history. Still unresolved is the question of friendships between women and men. The difficulty of engaging in this fashion is emphasized by the need repeatedly to declare to doubters that sex is not a component of such a relationship. more »

CultureWatch Review, The Marriage of Opposites: Magic Realism Imbuing Emotion and Presentiments With An Exotic Setting

Joan L. Cannon reviews: A Marriage of Opposites provides nuanced, layered, sensual images of a time and of people completely out of ordinary 21st Century experience. Hoffman's rich language combined with the eye of a visual as well as a verbal artist make for a uniquely vivid read. Color, temperature, atmosphere cling to a reader like a special scent long after the last page is turned. more »

Culture Watch: A Review of a John Fowles Classic, Daniel Martin

The story line covers about forty years in the life of an Englishman who has become first a playwright, then a film scriptwriter making comparisons between being English and being anything else, but most often, with being American. He declares his chagrin at the formalities and frozen traditions of English formal education and the class system, but never can hide his own debts to both. this intensely detailed psychological, political, philosophical biography becomes so thickly layered, it would be easy to be overcome by it. As it is, it takes over 600 printed pages to tell it. more »