Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

CBR15 Bingo: Asia/Oceania

The Dragon and the Pearl by Jeannie Lin

by Leave a Comment

CBR15 Bingo: Asia/Oceania (set in 8th Century China) 15-word review: Chinese warlord and infamous courtesan to the former Emperor rusticate among the bamboo. Love blossoms. Ling Suyin used to be one of the now-deceased Emperor’s favourite consorts. Known for her beauty, grace, and arts of seduction, she now lives far away from the court, quite happy with her retirement. As a former concubine to the Emperor, Ling Suyin is supposed to remain loyal to him to her dying day, something that makes her feel rather […]

Love Triumphant and a bit with a dog

The Anti-Hero by Sara Cate

by 2 Comments

Okay, so, some of you may remember that I reviewed Purity by Skyler Mason several months ago and that I was… not impressed. Purity was supposed to be spicy romance about someone who was recovering from growing up in purity culture. It wasn’t particularly romantic or sexy or spicy or even a good deconstruction* (see definition below) journey.    Today, I stumbled upon The Anti-Hero by Sara Cate. It is everything that Purity’s author wanted that book to be, but on steroids. It is filled […]

Nice illustrations and wisdom to help calm the mind

Big Panda and Tiny Dragon by James Norbury

by Leave a Comment

CBR 15 BINGO: Guide, because this is a guide for calm. (The dedication reads, “This book is dedicated to everyone who gets lost.”) I was given a copy of Big Panda and Tiny Dragon for Christmas last year, and I opened it with some trepidation. My last foray into self-help territory didn’t go well, if you recall. However, I was pretty sure I could at least finish this one, given that it includes cute pictures of a panda and a tiny dragon. Self-help isn’t really […]

Back then we prayed to the gods and went on killing sprees. Now we have Zoloft.

Fit for the Gods: Greek Mythology Reimagined by Jenn Northington and S. Zainab Williams

by 2 Comments

Zoraida Cordova knows what’s what. Her story, “The Gorgon Confessionals,” opens Fit for the Gods by imagining that the gods, immortals, heroes and villains of Greek mythology are regenerating into the modern world, they have their memories, but not necessarily their powers. Through a documentary series, Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy, is examining the story of Medusa and Perseus through a series of interviews. Zeus is a Republican candidate for President. (Vote Hades!). The stories by two of my favorite authors, Suleikha Snyder and Alyssa Cole […]

A soap bird and four seeds

Dounia and the Magic Seeds by Marya Zarif

by Leave a Comment

One day I was looking at my online reader copy list and said, “Today I read you.” Well, I never did read that book, but read Dounia and the Magic Seeds instead. I had no real intention of reading it. The cover art was cute, but was not “doing it” for me. I was sure Yvette Ghione was a lovely person, but that was not helping me get into it. But the day I looked at another book, yet clicking on Dounia, I knew it […]

Standing up for the community

Pride and Persistence: Stories of Queer Activism (Do You Know My Name?)  by Mary Fairhurst Breen 

by Leave a Comment

Pride and Persistence: Stories of Queer Activism (Do You Know My Name?) by Mary Fairhurst Breen is a clever nonfiction book about everyday people who have made a name for themselves by just being themselves. We might not know them by that name (some people “only” fought the inclusion of a Chick-fil a on their college campus that resulted in Senator Graham making a fool of himself) but they made sure that others can have the freedom of being themselves, being represented, and finding ways to make it […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo