Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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“I think there is just one kind of folks. Folks.”

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

May 24, 2025 by bjornsnipe Leave a Comment

People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for- Atticus This is one of those books that I read at least once a year, and each time I find something new to appreciate in it. It also has the rare distinction of having one of the best and most accurate cinematic adaptions to date. (Seriously, To Kill A Mockingbird and Hogfather are the two off the top of my head you can say that of). My mother lent me her copy […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Alabama, bildungsroman, harper lee, legal thriller, the great depression

bjornsnipe's CBR17 Review No:64 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Alabama, bildungsroman, harper lee, legal thriller, the great depression ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

There is beauty to be found in the melting snow and McDonalds wrappers

Little Foxes Took Up Matches by Katya Kazbek

February 6, 2022 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

Mitya is not good at math, as you can see. But he’s good at imagination. Mitya is utterly convinced that no one has ever looked at two halves long enough, or attentively enough. Mitya has some stories for you. Much like Mitya himself, this novel contains multitudes. Katya Kazbek, who often works as a translator, holds the door open for the curious reader with snippets of fairy tales. Sometimes these tales are her takes on mythology, and sometimes they are the mythology of being a […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: andtheIToldYouSos, ARC, bildungsroman, coming-of-age, fall of communism, folklore, galley, intergenerational trauma, Ivan Bilibin, Katya Kazbek, Koschei, Leshy, lgtbqia, magical realism, mythology, Russia, Russian folklore, tin house, tin house galley club, USSR, Vasilisa

andtheIToldYouSos's CBR14 Review No:6 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: andtheIToldYouSos, ARC, bildungsroman, coming-of-age, fall of communism, folklore, galley, intergenerational trauma, Ivan Bilibin, Katya Kazbek, Koschei, Leshy, lgtbqia, magical realism, mythology, Russia, Russian folklore, tin house, tin house galley club, USSR, Vasilisa ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Merry Christmas!

The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

The Girl With the Long Green Heart by Lawrence Block

Cold Shot to the Heart by Wallace Stroby

Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League by Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D'Arcangelo

All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris

Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortune and Misfortune of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty by Jonathan Pearson

The Blonde on the Street Corner by David Goodis

December 26, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! Having been busy with Christmas prep, avoiding Delta and Omicron, and other various things, I haven’t had the time to write long, 250+ reviews for these books. I figured I’d just cram them all here since I know I won’t finish Robert Caro’s Master of the Senate before New Year’s Eve. The Fortress of Solitude *** This clears the 3-star threshold but just barely. I appreciate what Lethem is trying to do here and I usually enjoy his work. But this was a […]

Filed Under: Biography/Memoir, Fiction, History, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Sports, Suspense Tagged With: All Her Little Secrets, Atlanta, bildungsroman, Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D'Arcangelo, Brooklyn, Cold Shot to the Heart, Con Men, corporate thriller, David Goodis, football, Georgia, Getty Oil, Hail Mary, hard case crime, J. Paul Getty, Jonathan Lethem, Jonathan Pearson, lawrence block, mystery, National Women's Football League, Noir, Painfully Rich, Philadelphia, sports, superheroes, surrealism, The Blonde on the Street Corner, The Fortress of Solitude, The Girl with the Long Green Heart, thieves, thriller, true crime, Wallace Stroby, Wanda M. Morris, women

Jake's CBR13 Review No:201 · Genres: Biography/Memoir, Fiction, History, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Sports, Suspense · Tags: All Her Little Secrets, Atlanta, bildungsroman, Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D'Arcangelo, Brooklyn, Cold Shot to the Heart, Con Men, corporate thriller, David Goodis, football, Georgia, Getty Oil, Hail Mary, hard case crime, J. Paul Getty, Jonathan Lethem, Jonathan Pearson, lawrence block, mystery, National Women's Football League, Noir, Painfully Rich, Philadelphia, sports, superheroes, surrealism, The Blonde on the Street Corner, The Fortress of Solitude, The Girl with the Long Green Heart, thieves, thriller, true crime, Wallace Stroby, Wanda M. Morris, women ·
· 0 Comments

They Have Everything At…

The Mall by Megan McCafferty

May 28, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

Normally, I don’t go for bildungsroman tales. I have no desire to relive my younger days through fictional surrogates, nor do I often find the protagonists interesting enough to care about. They’re all either too smart for their own good or too dumb for the purposes of entertainment. But set one in a mall in the early-90s? Now you’re speaking my language. And Megan McCafferty definitely needs to speak it because this story is stretched as thinly as possible. It works because of the goodwill […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: 90s, bildungsroman, Megan mccafferty, Shopping malls, the mall

Jake's CBR13 Review No:76 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: 90s, bildungsroman, Megan mccafferty, Shopping malls, the mall ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

cbr12bingo – Fresh Start

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

August 17, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos 2 Comments

I have a confession to make: I judged this book by its cover. I remember the frenzy of press around this book, the series, and the *mysterious* author. I also remember seeing the cover and being completely uninterested. It is, in my opinion, a dreadful cover. It looks like it was cobbled together to act as a prop. It looks like a poorly thought out passion project. I still think the cover is awful, but I am glad that I changed my mind around shunning […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Ann Goldstein, bildungsroman, cbr12bingo, coming-of-age, Elena Ferrante, Fresh Start, friendship, inter generational trauma, Italian language, italian literature, Naples, postwar Europe, postwar Italy, translated, youth

andtheIToldYouSos's CBR12 Review No:91 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Ann Goldstein, bildungsroman, cbr12bingo, coming-of-age, Elena Ferrante, Fresh Start, friendship, inter generational trauma, Italian language, italian literature, Naples, postwar Europe, postwar Italy, translated, youth ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments

“He breathed in my face the coffee he’d just drunk, mingled with the odor of his gums.”

A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio

August 10, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

1970s Naples: a thirteen year old girl of privilege is suddenly removed from her seaside home and returned to a cramped and dirty apartment outside the city.  The key word here is “returned”; our heroine has been sent “home” to a place that she never knew. She spent her entire life living with her glamorous mother and policeman father, only to have that reality shattered in one afternoon when the man she knew as her father bundles her and all of her belongings into the […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Ann Goldstein, bildungsroman, coming-of-age, domestic violence, Donatella Di Pietrantonio, ebook, Education, europa edition, family, generational trauma, Italian language, Italy, L'Arminuta, Naples, Sisters, translated

andtheIToldYouSos's CBR12 Review No:88 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Ann Goldstein, bildungsroman, coming-of-age, domestic violence, Donatella Di Pietrantonio, ebook, Education, europa edition, family, generational trauma, Italian language, Italy, L'Arminuta, Naples, Sisters, translated ·
· 0 Comments
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