Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Featured Review Archive

These reviews, which were promoted in CBR social media, on our homepage, and in Pajiba Love, appear below by review publication date, not by date featured.

 

Confronting the Past

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

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Bingo: Diaspora. This book about American slavery ties to the African diaspora that occurred due to the transatlantic slave trade. The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it. The history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories.” Clint Smith’s How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History […]

“I’m looking for something different in a partner by my side”

Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack, Stevie Lewis

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I picked this up based on the cover alone; thankfully the story and art inside make it well worth it. Prince & Knight tells the story, in rhyme, of a prince who is going to ascend the throne sometime soon, so his parents decide that it’s about time he gets married. While they’re on their round-the-world tour of eligible princesses, a dragon attacks their kingdom. Wanting to help his people (and get away from the awkwardness of this whole trip), the Prince rides home to […]

Returning Fairytales to Their Roots – Stories that are NOT for Kids

F*cked Up Fairy Tales by Liz Gotauco

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When Liz Gotauco (aka cosbrarian) announced last year that her F*cked Up Fairytales with Liz video series was coming to us in book form, I got very excited. When the arc showed up on NetGalley, I smashed the request button hard. When the e-arc showed up on my kindle, I started to read it very slowly, because in 2025, joy should be savored. F*cked Up Fairytales: Sinful Cinderellas, Prince Alarmings and Other Timeless Classics is everything I hoped it would be. F*cked Up Fairy Tales […]

A friendly guide to owning a car

Mechanic Shop Femme’s Guide to Car Ownership: Uncomplicating Cars for All of Us by Chaya M. Milchtein

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When I was 14, my dad told me that he would teach me to drive on his 1974 Volkswagen van, but first I had to read Zen and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance, and we would then take parts of the van apart so I understood how it worked and how to fix it. This was in the ’90s, and, owing to a combination of eternal coolness and bad financial blows, that van was his beloved daily driver, not a restored show piece. The way […]

Not Rebecca, Not Mexican Gothic

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

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I had heard of Isabel Cañas’s The Hacienda as Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, but in Mexico. When I found that it wasn’t literally a Rebecca retelling in Mexico, I put it down because I expected Mrs. Danvers, not priests. This probably says more about me than the book. But I did intend to check it back out when my expectations calmed down. (If I saw all the Mexican Gothic comparisons beforehand, I might have finished it the first time.) This review shouldn’t be about […]

Challenging Things Happening to Horrible People

What a Way to Go by Bella Mackie

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Best for: People who don’t mind reading about horrible people, and who like a bit of schadenfreude. In a nutshell: Anthony – a very rich finance dude – dies at his 60th birthday gala. Was he murdered? Did he take his own life? Is something else going on? Worth quoting: “He’d always thought I was an idiot. It’s a mistake men often make, thinking their wives are stupid when they’re actually just full of rage.” “Who are these people who walk through the world with […]



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