Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About RaRaGabor

CBR14 Participant

Public librarian reading in Western NY.

RaRaGabor's Reviews:

Those podcast episodes must only be, like, 5 minutes long

The Night Swim by Megan Golding

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This was a work book club pick, and I was actually looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I’m adding it to my list of disappointing thrillers. Rachel Krall has a true crime podcast – I’m thinking something along the lines of Serial. For her third season, she wants to cover a case going to trial while it’s in progress, and picks an alleged rape in a small North Carolina town (which seems to be inspired by the Brock Turner case). Rachel travels to Neapolis (yes. This […]

Workplace horror, but make it kinda boring

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

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I really wanted to love this book. The hype around it (“Get Out” meets “The Stepford Wives”) made me think it would be right up my alley. This is the story of Nella, an editorial assistant at Wagner Books, a prestigious and very white publishing firm in New York. Nella is tired of being the only black employee; her colleagues are not so much overtly racist as cluelessly biased. Nella is also tired of grinding as an assistant for so long, and eager to get […]

“You’ll find that what you can bear increases a great deal when you are not offered any other choice.”

The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller

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Mistress Charm is a witch, maybe, and a madam certainly. She presides over Orchard House, a brothel/social club catering to Borengard’s most wealthy and powerful. The eponymous orchard is filled with bone trees, which fruit can be animated into living creatures. Mistress Charm is also mistress to the Emperor, who visits every Tuesday. When the Emperor is poisoned, he charges Charm with finding (and killing) those responsible for his death. This book is so densely plotted and detailed that it took me quite a while […]

“If you want to play life safe, don’t live on the moon.”

Artemis by Andy Weir

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I have gotten woefully behind in posting reviews, so welcome to the lightning round! Let’s see if I can get 10 reviews written and posted in the next 10 days, shall we? Artemis is an interesting departure from The Martian. And while it has a lot of the same elements that made The Martian work for me, ultimately, Artemis was not quite as successful. Jazz Bashara is a petty criminal living on the moon. Artemis is a city, or a space station, depending on how […]

“It was odd. As a girl, Sophie would have shriveled with embarrassment at the way she was behaving. As an old woman, she did not mind what she did or said. She found that a great relief.”

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

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Years and years ago, I watched the Studio Ghibli production of Howl’s Moving Castle, and enjoyed it, as I enjoy most of their films. But I never read the book, and it wasn’t really on my radar, until I was scrolling endlessly through Libby looking for a new audio book. As luck would have it, I was in the mood for something light, and Howl’s Moving Castle definitely fit that bill. Though the book is named for the enigmatic Wizard Howl and his castle that […]

“You must remember, mijo, even people who were once your sails can become your anchors.”

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

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Olga Dies Dreaming is a debut novel, getting a ton of buzz in library circles. Set in 2017 Brooklyn, our main characters are Olga, a wedding planner to the very rich, and her brother, Prieto, who represents their largely Puerto Rican (but gentrifying) neighborhood in Congress. But hovering over every page is their mother, Blanca. Blanca was a radical in the Young Lords, who abandoned her school-aged children to be a militant activist all over Central and South America. This abandonment fundamentally shaped both Olga […]



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