Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Tracy

CBR 9
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR17 Comments
CBR17 Levels

40-something psychologist living with a husband, toddler, and 2 cats.

Tracy's Reviews:

A Theory of Dreaming

A Theory of Dreaming by Ava Reid

by Leave a Comment

cbr17bingo: school Unfortunately, this book did not live up to the first one, A Study in Drowning, which was atmospheric and felt like it was making an important point. This one is more muddled and unfocused. The perspectives are divided between Effy and Preston, and I appreciated learning more about Preston. He and Effy have returned to their university, where they have to deal with the aftermath of their discoveries at Hiraeth, the trauma of what happened there, and Effy’s becoming the first female student […]

An Urban Fantasy Featuring Slavic Folklore

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

by Leave a Comment

cbr17bingo: diaspora—a lot of the non-human creatures settled in the U.S. after fleeing the Holy Order in Europe, especially Poland. Who knew Veronica Roth had written so many books? I kind of lost sight of her after the Divergence trilogy, but she has a number of other publications to her name now, and I’m glad I decided to start exploring them. This novella is an urban fantasy set in Chicago. It follows Dymitr, who makes a deal with Ala, a zmora—a fear-eating creature—to help him […]

A Sweet, Rivals to Lovers Sapphic Romance

Outdrawn by Deanna Grey

by Leave a Comment

I was looking for a light read between finishing Martyr! and resuming a Robin Hobb book, and this fit the bill. It’s a sweet, sapphic romance between Noah and Sage, two rival artists. They had met in college but hadn’t interacted in several years, though they were well aware of what each was doing on the comic scene, and then Noah gets hired by the company Sage works at. They are going to have to work together as the head artists on a comic rebranding, though neither […]

An Eminently Quotable Novel

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

by 1 Comment

This book was a first for me: the first time I ever tabbed a book. I had avoided doing so in the past because I thought it required some kind of system, but this novel is just so quotable that I couldn’t resist (though I didn’t develop a system). It’s largely about Cyrus, an Iranian-American man whose life has been shaped by tragedy, generational trauma, and addiction. Now two years into recovery, he is focused on trying to find meaning and purpose in life and […]

Not Enough Bite

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

by Leave a Comment

I wanted, probably even expected, to like this more than I did. I was so excited about a sapphic vampire story that predated Dracula but that isn’t really talked about—I certainly hadn’t heard of it until some time within the past year. The book is narrated by Laura, who lives with her father in an isolated castle. They take Carmilla in when she is injured in an accident just outside of their home, and the two young women become close. Meanwhile, other girls and women […]

Can I Just Say “Wow!” and Leave It at That?

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

by Leave a Comment

What an incredible book. I knew from reading If Beale Street Could Talk that James Baldwin was a good writer, but it is rare for me to appreciate a book on just a literary level. The prose, the symbolism, the way it’s so clear what the narrator is experiencing even though he himself is hiding from his feelings—it was phenomenal. Written in the 1950s and set in Paris, the novel follows narrator David through his relationship with Giovanni and the aftermath of its ending. We know from […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo