Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Whole New World – At Least to Me

A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

by Leave a Comment

cbr17bingo TBR This was fascinating, a murder mystery set in a time and place that was unfamiliar to me.  In the early 1950s, South Africa had just entered into its apartheid era.  What had been previously informal, now became rigidly structured by law.  The population was strictly divided between the whites (original Dutch settlers and the mostly English settlers that followed – two distinct groups), the native Africans, and the colored population (for the most part settlers from India and anyone who was of a […]

“If there is a silver lining to suffering trauma, it is the opportunity to learn about one’s self, to trail mental fingers over a previously unrecognized core of inner strength.”

A Libertarian Walks into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

by 3 Comments

Sometimes a title just does it for you. A Libertarian Walks into a Bear – as a title – makes me smile every time. Make of that what you will. Its author’s writing style is also sly and occasionally funny which works to balance out the serious nature of a lot of what is being discussed in the narrative.   Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling is a local New Hampshire journalist who gets pulled into the world of Grafton, NH and its story of libertarians and bears through what […]

“You are the queen. You are the queen that Antoinette wanted to be . . .”

Antoinette's Sister by Diana Giovinazzo

by Leave a Comment

CBR17 Bingo: Black – Behold, the cover. Though her tragic sister Marie Antoinette is better known today, Maria Carolina Charlotte, the queen of Naples, ruled with better success but faced her own share of troubles and tribulations in her years on the throne. The thing with historical fiction is that the story can live or die by the events it’s based on, especially when it follows the life of a historical figure. Luckily, Charlotte is an interesting main character. Though her attitudes toward the monarchy […]

Mesmerizing roller coaster

Cry Wolf Girl by Ariel Slamet Ries

by Leave a Comment

I think I dislike everything about this book, Cry Wolf Girl, yet it was an amazing read. I just could not put it down. There are no natural breaks so it was not like I could stop at the end of a chapter but that didn’t matter. I just wanted to gobble it up. The book makes you think, feel and question. There are clearly marked paths we are taking, but things are not straight forward. It is artistic. It is not what you think […]

As she watched, a single dark red petal broke free from the vine just above the plaque and floated, strange and slow, all the way to the ground.

Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti

by Leave a Comment

After reading Charlie Jane Anders’s Lessons in Magic and Disaster last month, I particularly enjoyed reading about two women writing books and falling in love in Georgian England. In Lessons, Jamie was researching magic and queer subtext in a fictional novel written by real 18th century woman, Sarah Fielding. In Ladies in Hating, Georgiana and Catriona are each authors of gothic books under pseudonyms. It is still scandalous for a woman to be an author, especially of gothic literature, though Georgiana’s identity is somewhat of […]

Krampus kramps your naughty style

Tonight Is Krampus Night by Kyle Sullivan

by Leave a Comment

One thing I try to do every year is to find at least three Christmas books and at least one other winter holiday book. The Christmas books I try to find are a religious one, a more fun one (Santa, or silly reindeer have been in the past) and an Other book (maybe spiritual but it hits the spirit of things). I try to find one Hanukkah and one Winter Solstice, or something that is a holiday and/or just fun. This year I found a […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo