Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Chris

CBR11 participant

Hi, it's me. Really, I hate these bio things. I like to read.

Chris's Reviews:

Zombie

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

by Leave a Comment

When Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries died, some people said “Dreams” or “Linger” was the band’s best song. But for many people, myself include, it was “Zombie”, the song about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It isn’t that the U2 songs about it are bad – “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” is powerful – but “Zombie” is so rare that powerful doesn’t even begin to describe it. It is the sense of horrible lose and pain. And you can’t help but think of that song why reading […]

Wonder Woman vs Gods

Wonder Woman Vol. 3 Iron by Brian Azzarello

by Leave a Comment

This third volume of the Wonder Woman New 52 series concerns Wonder Woman struggling to adjust to several things. First there is the fact that she is the last Amazon, then there is what happened to her mother, but she is also adjusting to the fact that she has a whole slew of siblings (they share a father-Zeus), but the newest one of those siblings has been stolen by Hermes. Diana has promised the child’s mother, Zola that she will find and return him. Oh, […]

Wow

Wonder Woman Vol 4: War by Brian Azzarello

by Leave a Comment

We get so much in this volume. We get to discover what happened to Cassandra’s neck. It is so much worse than you could think. We find out the name of Zola’s son. It’s not Wonder Woman’s choice of Steve. Wonder Woman and Co go toe to toe with the First Born, who proves just how scummy and dangerous he is. We find out more about Orion, who faces his own struggle of conscience. But honesty, that scene where Diana calls Orion out about his […]

Journalistic account

Fred & Rose: The Full Story of Fred and Rose West and the Gloucester House of Horrors by Howard Sounes

by Leave a Comment

I first heard of the Wests when the Appropriate Adult mini-series/movie came on cable here in the US. It had Dominic West and Emily Watson, so it was good. Therefore, when the eBook version of this book came up for sale, I brought it. After reading a mystery that used the Wests as a plot point, I decided to read this book. The Wests, Fred and Rose, were murderers and rapists who targeted younger women and buried some of the victims in the yard of […]

Do you remember when . . . .

Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe by Serhii Plokhy

by Leave a Comment

I vaguely remember the Chernobyl disaster. I remember hearing about it on the news and being scared. That’s about it. Plokhy’s history rectifies that. The book opens with the Swedish discovery of the disaster and includes a detailed account of the disaster itself. Not only the events leading up to it but the human cost of those who fought the faire without knowing fully the risk they were taking. The first tragedy is what happens to the firefighters. But the book isn’t just a detailed […]

Once there was a mermaid

The Magic Threeof Solatia by Jane Yolen

by Leave a Comment

Jane Yolen has been called America’s Hans Christian Anderson. It is an apt comparison. Most of her work is either for children or young adults, yet the work has that quality that can also attract adults. There is much going on there. Magic Three of Solatia functions in part as a reply to Andersen’s Little Mermaid. Not the Disney version with its happy ending but the dark original tale. In that one, the prince is, perhaps, not truly deserving of the mermaid’s love. Yolen looks […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo