Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

CBR BINGO – SEX: Never meet your heroes.

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

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This book was wild, and I actually really enjoyed it! I love books that go down deep into the id, and I love books that talk about writing and the creative process, and this did both of those things very well. I really only have a couple reasons for lowering this book to 3.5 stars, but that’s for later. First, the title is pretty accurate here, it’s a book about a writing retreat. Four (now five for some mysterious reason) young women writers have been […]

“There is no special protection when you cross that invisible line from your ordinary life to that parallel world where tragedies happen. It happens just like this. You don’t become someone else. You’re still exactly the same. Everything around you still smells and looks and feels exactly the same.”

Truly, Madly, Guilty by Liane Moriarty

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CBR Bingo – Oceania Australian literary phenomenon Liane Moriarty has done it again!! Or I guess, she did it again a while back because this isn’t her newest book, but it’s gripped me just like all the rest. Hold my calls. Feed my dog. I’m stuck in a book. Moriarty has a slick formula that relies on foreshadowing to hook you from the beginning. Much like in “Big Little Lies” we know at the start of the book that something awful happened to tear these […]

A little plane at night in a storm

Into the Abyss by Carol Shaben

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I originally picked up Into the Abyss (2014) by Carol Shaben because I was looking for a book to fill the “In the Wild” bingo square. The blurb said Into the Abyss was the true story of a plane that crashed in the Canadian wilderness. That sounded like in the wild to me. However, once I read the book, it didn’t feel right. The survivors only spend one night in the wilderness and their biggest challenges are surviving their injuries and not freezing to death. So, I decided to […]

Just in time for the movie

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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It was only when the trailer for the new movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, popped up on my Youtube page that I realized there was another Hunger Games story that I’d somehow missed. I’d read the original Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins–really getting caught up in the action in the first book, but losing interest and gaining frustration by the last book. I never made it through all the movies, but it was an intriguing story that stuck with me. Thus, after watching the trailer, I immediately […]

Bronze-Age Crete

Minoan Wings V01 Dragonfly Song by Wendy Orr

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The novel Minoan Wings V01 Dragonfly Song is a contemporary toned story set in the Bronze Age. The historical facts were well researched by the author, Wendy Orr. And what is presented is not just the factual information, but also there is an arc about mythology and religion (such as the goddess worship vs the bull/masculine, the representation of the animals and nature), and one that feels like it has more modern ideas of equality and gender (the goddess, the mother,  the priestess, daughters). Though maternal ruled villages […]

Sticky Icky

The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran

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Read this as part of CBR15Bingo: sex-banned. This book is about the pursuit of a centuries old erotic text that is said to give its participants magic powers if they follow the rules. It’s also “banned” in some places…the titular book, not this actual book. Although, given its content, I wouldn’t be surprised if it made the list sooner than later.  This is one of those books where I wonder if the author being a favorite makes me too biased to judge it accurately. There […]



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