Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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

Antoinette's Sister by Diana Giovinazzo

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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 […]

The Past Is a Different Country

The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan by Ivan Morris

American Monsters by Adam Jortner

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CBR17 Bingo: Favorite – Both books are history books about fairly specialized, off beat topics – my favorite kind. The World of the Shining Prince by Ivan Morris – 5 stars For about a century about a millennium ago, a strange era flourished in Japan where a series of boy emperors were ruled by their in-laws (who were also their grandparents, cousins, and aunts), beauty was virtue, and the failure to catch the vaguest conversational allusion to a poem spelled social ruin. This book is […]

“Shay had always had one of those faces meant for smiling. Not every face was meant for smiling but Shay’s was one of them.”

In a Jam by Kate Canterbary

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3.5 stars CBR17 Bingo: I (A book title beginning with I) Official plot summary: When Shay Zucconi’s step-grandmother died, she left Shay a tulip farm—under two conditions. First, Shay has to move home to the small town of Friendship, Rhode Island. Second—and most problematic, since her fiancé just called off the wedding—Shay must be married within one year. Marriage is the last thing in the world Shay wants but she’ll do anything to save the only real home she’s ever known. Noah Barden loved Shay […]

“For the one you love? Anything. You unmake the world and build a new one. You do anything to give them what they need.”

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

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4.5 stars CBR17 Bingo: G (A book title starting with G)   After months of online research, Alice Scott has tracked down the reclusive former tabloid darling Margaret Ives and hopes to persuade the woman to let Alice write her biography. Imagine the unpleasant surprise for Alice when it turns out that Margaret might not want to tell her life’s story at all, and she basically wants to ‘audition’ Alice and another writer for the next month, before she makes up her mind. That other […]

“It’s better to be interesting than likable”

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

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Buzzword Title Challenge 25: Truth and Lies CBR17 Bingo: Review (this was very favourably reviewed by Pooja, Narfna and Chairbrarian) Five years ago, Lucy’s best friend Savvy was murdered and Lucy was found wandering along the road, absolutely covered in Savvy’s blood. Unfortunately, Lucy also had a pretty severe head wound, which resulted in amnesia, and can’t remember anything about the night in question, before or after the murder took place. There wasn’t enough evidence to convict her, but most people in her home town […]

“Bad Llama. Level 3. It’s a llama, but it’s bad. If he were human, he’d be covered in prison tattoos and would be hanging out in front of the Circle K hitting on 14-year-old girls.”

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

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CBR17 Bingo: Rec’d (I honestly don’t know how many people have raved about this book, on CBR, other review sites on the internet, as well as in my IRL book club) By now, most people who are even vaguely interested in this series probably know what it’s about, but I’ll try to give a brief summary. Carl is wandering around, half-dressed in the snow, looking for his ex-girlfriend’s prize-winning Persian cat, when Earth is suddenly attacked by aliens. All the buildings collapse in an instant […]



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