Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Ale

CBR 7
CBR 8
CBR 9
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR14 Bingo Badges

I'm TAing in creative writing, and I'm in the midst of editing my first novel. Along with CBR, I have book reviews published with "The Literary Review," short essay with "Fiction Southeast" and a forthcoming publication with "The Book Smuggler's Den." CBR has definitely helped my writing skills since now I know what readers are looking for for in their works. So, thank you, CBR! Hopefully someday, we'll be able to review my novel on this blog. :) (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Ale's Quick Questions interview.)

Ale's Reviews:

Stone and Ash and Magic

The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin

by Leave a Comment

The more of Jemisin’s works I read, the more I fall in love with her craft. The Obelisk Gate is book two in her Broken Earth Trilogy, and even though I’m normally not the biggest fan of any middle book in a trilogy, I enjoyed this book even more than her first one. We pick up the story almost exactly where we left off in book one, and follow Essun as she pivots her focus from finding her daughter, Nassun, to assisting the orogenes of Castrima […]

1st Bingo!

Andrea Vernon & the Corporation for Ultra-Human Protection by Alexander C. Kane

by 2 Comments

While I don’t normally go in for the self-published or amazon-only published books, crystalclear listened to the audio version of Andrea Vernon & the Corporation for Ultra-Human Protection, and adored it, so I told her I’d give it a go. She loves me, and bought me the print copy since I don’t do audio books, and it was an absolute delight. This book is just fun. Andrea Vernon is the most relatable millennial, struggling to find employment in NYC while also being true to herself […]

Sometimes Friends Give You Bad Books

Pay the Piper: A Rock n' Roll Fairytale by Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple

by Leave a Comment

  As a librarian, Crystalclear is always on the hunt for books in her friends’ wheelhouses, and so I got a text from her asking if I’d like to read Pay the Piper. She hadn’t loved it, but thought maybe she was just the wrong audience. Would I give it a try and an honest review? I’m the perfect audience; faerie legends and fractured fairytales are my jam. I was really excited to read this. ::Sigh:: The book is split between chapters in the world of […]

A Monster Take on Sherlock Holmes

A Study In Emerald by Neil Gaiman

by 1 Comment

I’m not usually one for graphic novels, but I will read Neil Gaiman’s grocery list, so when my friend brought this over and said ‘you gotta read this,’ I took the opportunity. “A Study In Emerald” closely follows Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original “A Study in Scarlet,” but with cooler characters and monsters. To give anything else of the plot away will spoil the joy of this story too much, so I’ll leave it at that and let those who love Gaiman and Sherlock Holmes […]

“Every Time Something Doesn’t Happen, It Means Something Else Can”

What If A Fish by Anika Fajardo

by 1 Comment

While I’m not usually a reader of middle-grade fiction, this debut novel came across my Facebook feed, as one of my cohorts from my MFA program was its editor! I bought it immediately and was so charmed by this adorable story. What if A Fish follows Little Eddie Aguado, an eleven-year-old Colombian American who feels neither Colombian or American. As he struggles to find his place in the world, he comes across a fishing medal owned by his late-father that sets him on an adventure […]

The Muppets Did it Better

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

by Leave a Comment

As Tropical Storm Isaias took out our power, and one of my quarantine goals is to actually read books I own instead of buying more, I thought it appropriate to read this children’s classic that’s been sitting on my shelf for years. Like many of my books, I have no idea where this copy came from, which partially lead to its appeal. And even though I loved “Muppet Treasure Island” so much, I broke the VHS back in the 90s, I’d never read the source […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo