Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About vel veeter

CBR 8
CBR 9
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR14 Bingo Badges
CBR15 Participant

vel veeter's Reviews:

The mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham

by Leave a Comment

I am often searching for what literary or tv character has the same basic energy as my cat (my bad cat) and I think I can say that it’s Toad. Toad is amazing. If you haven’t read this book before, and I thought I had, but hadn’t, it’s truly wonderful. It’s the story of Toad, Rat, Mole, and Badger — four friends (who are probably gay, ahem, I mean, confirmed bachelors) who may be actual animals, may be humans, may be of relative size to […]

I cannot blame them.

Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household

by Leave a Comment

This is a thriller from 1939 that almost wants to be as apolitical and ahistorical as possible, while also borrowing heavily from the politics and history of the time and context. We begin with the narration of an English aristocrat (or rich celeb, it’s never entirely clear) as he’s been arrested, tortured, and escaped. He’s now in hiding with enough time and space for us to better understand his situation. He is a famous gamehunter who was captured while seemingly planning the assassination of a […]

I make no apology for presenting a new translation of these document which are our only contact with the life of that extraordinary woman, Ash (b.1457[?]-d.1477). One has long been needed.

A Secret History by Mary Gentle

Carthage Ascendant by Mary Gentle

by Leave a Comment

Book 1 This is a long fantasy novel broken up into 16 parts and originally published in four shorter novel, each one about 275 pages. The book begins with a brief introduction from a researcher in medieval texts telling us that he will be presenting a new groundbreaking translation of a medieval text (from Latin and French) from the late 1400s. This text is a new translation and he makes references to several older versions and gives us a basic run down of the process […]

In the second half of the 1960s, I traveled repeatedly from England to Belgium, partly for study purposes, partly for other reasons which were never entirely clear to me…

WG Sebald by Austerlitz

by Leave a Comment

It’s impossible to talk about this novel’s plot without discussing the central structure first. There’s hole in the center of this story and we are seeking to understand what’s missing because our central character is also trying to figure that out. He’s a writer and a scholar and inveterate learner, but he doesn’t know who he is, where he comes from, or what his history is. These are literal statements. So we’re getting much of his story as he tries to piece together this information. […]

The old ram stands looking down over rockslides, stupid triumphant.

Grendel by John Gardner

by Leave a Comment

An incredibly dry and hilarious, and deeply thoughtful, retelling of “Beowulf” from the perspective of Grendel. This is NOT like those books like “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs”, but instead is more like Wide Sargasso Sea or other retellings of colonial stories. And in a lot of ways, this book is like a post-colonial retelling of Beowulf. Grendel is a being, an incredibly intelligent, powerful being in the world when he comes across men (otherwise he knows the dumb animals, his chaotic and […]

She hurries from the house, in a coat too heavy for the weather.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

by Leave a Comment

I’ve read two of Michael Cunningham’s novels now (along with a short story collection) and he really does like three storylines in three different timelines (all connected by a literary link). Or least this book and Specimen Days share these aspects. I am obviously very late to reading this one; it had a moment to be sure in winning the Pulitzer Prize and being made into a movie and winning many awards there too. I’ve not seen the movie either. The story involves three storylines: Virginia Woolf […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo