Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About GentleRain

CBR14 Participant
CBR14 Bingo Badges
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR17 Levels

Your jack of all trades eccentric. Knows a little about a lot and a lot about a little. Tends to mainly read non-fiction (history, true crime, old gossip, etc), SF/F, horror, graphic novels, "genre" books. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: GentleRain's Quick Questions interview.)

GentleRain's Reviews:

A Disappointing Read for Me

So Compassionate it Hurts: My Life as a Rabbi on the Spectrum by Tzemah Yoreh

by Leave a Comment

I was really excited to read this because I’d never seen another book that combined looking at Judaism and Autism through a memoir lens. Unfortunately this book was just not for me and I ended up irritated and forcing myself to finish it. It’s a pretty short book and a third of it is sermons and poetry, which for me took away from the actual memoir portion. Yoreh is extremely into poetry and I know this is a personal issue, but I am not a […]

A Very Sad True Crime Book

Golden Boy: A Murder Among the Manhattan Elite by John Glatt

by Leave a Comment

I picked this up because it intersected with my interests in NYC, mental illness, and true crime, and I’d been considering getting it for a while before my mom agreed to buy it for me on vacation (she’s a great mom!). Honestly, if I’d bought this myself I don’t know if I’d have been that happy with my decision because this book was perfectly fine but nothing exceptional. It was only $10 but it’s always easier when it’s not your $10. Golden Boy follows the […]

5 Stars for a Great Fantasy Adventure Graphic Novel

Dungeon Critters by Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter

by Leave a Comment

I’ve been following Sara Riess-Goetter’s autobio work for years but I knew she and her wife Natalie had also been working on this all-ages fantasy graphic novel for a long time. I finally picked it up recently and loved it so much that I’ve pre-ordered their next book so I won’t miss it. I could scold my past self for not reading this earlier, because it was so up my alley, but I’ll cut myself some slack. This is a really great book and I’m […]

“I started out in a green house with a red door in a small town, where mysteries abounded.”

Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew

by Leave a Comment

Voyager is my favorite Star Trek series so I was interested to read this book and learn more about Kate Mulgrew’s life. She is a very lyrical writer with a great eye for detail — having read other celebrity memoirs before, you can tell when one is ghostwritten and this one read as if it was purely her own effort. She has a strong voice and is able to really capture a scene and the elements that make it powerful. Her writing elevates this beyond […]

“I deserve to be seen. To be noticed. To be heard. To be treated like a human.”

Starfish by Lisa Fipps

by Leave a Comment

This is a very good novel told in free verse poems from the point of view of Ellie, who is about to enter sixth grade and whose best friend is moving away. She is fat and her mother is determined for her to lose weight by any means necessary, and she keeps pushing Ellie to get weight loss surgery. Ellie is also bullied at school for being fat and then the bullying continues at home by her mother and brother. Her sister also joins in […]

Perfectly Readable True Crime

In Plain Sight: The Kaufman County Prosecutor Murders by Kathryn Casey

by Leave a Comment

I return to book reviews after getting sidetracked by leaving my job and starting my non-degree classes in preparation for applying to grad schools at the end of the year. Suffice to say that was pretty distracting but I have continued to read so am going to try to work through my review backlog! In Plain Sight was a straight forward true crime novel that I picked up randomly at Barnes & Noble. I knew a bit about this case but was interested to know […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo