Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“In these islands there is no certainty. Bring your own food, your own gods, your own flowers and fruits and concepts. “

Hawaii by James A. Michener

by Leave a Comment

CBR16 Bingo: Détente – This book is all about all the different peoples and cultures that came to settle the Hawaiian Islands, and ends at the point that they really begin to comfortably and fairly coexist. Hawaii is a beautiful place with a complicated history, having over the course of more than one thousand years been settled by many peoples from many places, all of which have wrestled over its lands and wealth and made their indelible mark. This book is over a thousand pages long […]

The Other Side of Huckleberry Finn

James by Percival Everett

by Leave a Comment

CBR16 Bingo: Fanfic – This book is a reimagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which centers the viewpoint of the runaway slave Jim who accompanied Huck on his travels on the Mississippi. Jim is well-known as Huckleberry Finn’s runaway slave companion, but in this retelling we meet him as James, a character for who the stakes are higher and the world much more vicious than we ever glimpse in Mark Twain’s classic novel. It’s been a long while since I last read […]

Only Room for One Goat at the Top

The Feast of the Goat / La fiesta del Chivo by Mario Vargas Llosa

by Leave a Comment

This is my first go-around with Mario Vargas Llosa, and this book was the month’s choice for a world literature bookclub that was held back in May.  I had known for weeks that this was the chosen book, so I thought I had plenty of time to track down a copy to read. However, when I checked the local e-libraries, none of them had any of Vargas Llosa’s books available—in English. Interestingly, Harris County’s online library seems to have almost his entire back catalog in […]

“They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.”

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

by Leave a Comment

Somehow, despite being an English major in college and a big reader my whole life, this is a classic I had never heard of or come across. I discovered it in a very weird way, which I’ll detail after my brief review. (Isn’t reviewing classics weird? What else can you add to the narrative?) This finalist for the Pulitzer is a vibrant, gripping meditation on war, specifically, the Vietnam War, and I’m glad it’s been a focus in the American education system over the years, […]

“Friendship is a contract between two hearts. With hearts united, women can laugh and cry, live and die together.”

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

by Leave a Comment

My local library has us go around in a circle and sum up the book in one word (Or a few words, I mean, they aren’t strict about it and sometimes one word just won’t do!) and my word for this one was “unrelenting” because I found it to be one of the toughest reads I’ve gone through in a while. That’s not to say it isn’t a good book, it is but, it’s about being a woman in China in the 1400s so there […]

The hero really does behave quite beastly to begin with

The Beast Takes a Bride by Julie Anne Long

by Leave a Comment

3.75 stars Disclaimer: This was an ARC from NetGalley. It hasn’t affected my opinions in any way Spoiler warning – this review will contain some discussion of plot points I found difficult, so you may want to skip some parts of it until you’ve read the book Alexandra Bellamy has been taking care of her father and her siblings since her mother died. She has no dowry to speak of and knows her father has massive gambling debts. So when her father announces that the […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo