Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I’m a Rowell Convert: Bingo #5!

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

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Why have I not read Rainbow Rowell until now? Why have I not listened to what everyone in CBR has been saying about Rowell for years? Eleanor & Park is my first foray into Rowell’s writing world, and I now need to consume everything she’s ever written. Both Faintingviolet and Crystalclear are big fans of hers, but as I tend to have a hard time with YA, I’ve steered clear. Which was a MISTAKE! Eleanor & Park is the most perfect story I’ve encountered in […]

It was not war. It was most certainly massacre and genocide, something the world must remember…

The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel

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During WWI, the Young Turk government initiated the deportation, the concentration camps, and the massacre of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian citizens. This led to the death of 1 to 1.5 million people from 1915 to 1916, which is known as the Armenian genocide. This book, which is based on true events, focuses on a community on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea near Aleppo whose members decide to flee from their villages to the near mountain Musa Dagh, and to take up a seemingly futile […]

One of the top most 100 banned books of the decade! (2013)

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

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CBR11Bingo – Banned Books Sophie has two lives – the one her mother knows, and the one Sophie hides. The one Mother knows is the sad one. The miserable home life Sophie spends as the only child of two people who hate each other. Her mother is deeply depressed, spending more time with General Hospital than with the family. Her father is cold and distant, unless he and mom are screaming at each other. But in her other life, the one her mother doesn’t need […]

How to get a book banned in six easy steps

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

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CBR11bingo: Banned Books BINGO! Vertically: Youths, Illustrated, Classics, Rainbow Flag, Banned Books The Banned Books bingo square is one of my favorites in CBR Bingo. I like to peruse lists of banned books and see what foolishness is causing people to get up in arms. I also like to combine the square with something I’ve been wanting to read, and Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple was the perfect choice. It’s been on my TBR list for ages, and I was surprised to […]

These hoes ain’t loyal (banned books, bingo)

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

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Um. No. I’m champagne taste on a beer budget incarnate, but it’s never led me to cheat on and bankrupt an adoring spouse. I am bougie as hell in some ways but I’m not about to let my kid go without so I can have luxury. I may have debt but I’m not about to turn a blind eye to it by paying off credit with more credit. I love a good fantasy but I know where reality’s hard border is. Fuuuuuuck you, Emma Bovary. […]

First they convinced them that the afterlife is even better than Disneyland

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

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CBR11 BINGO: Illustrated (BINGO! Reading the TBR corner to Cannonballer Says corner) First, I want to say that the un-athletic yet competitive side of me is totally appreciating this BINGO situation. I enjoyed it last year, but I was less prepared for it. Now, the actual searching for books that fit into the squares that are more difficult for me is actually broadening my reading base in unexpected ways. Bravo, CBR idea makers! I bought a copy of this illustrated novel a few years ago for my son. His middle […]



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