Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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“He flopped sideways, mute testament to the greatest fighting technique of all: a friend behind your enemy.”

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

November 9, 2025 by faintingviolet 7 Comments

The Devils is my first Abercrombie book. I’ve had Half a King on my TBR for over a decade, but it hadn’t made its way onto an annual list yet. But as is often the case over the past many years narfna reviewed something ecstatically which had me checking to see if it fit a reading challenge (I’m counting this as weird horror for Read Harder and Black for CBR Bingo) and then it made its way to this year’s list.  My brain is tired having finished the nearly 550 pages of this book. But the good kind of tired. The “I just […]

Filed Under: Featured, Fiction Tagged With: black, cbr17bingo, Dark Fantasy, first in a series, found family, joe abercrombie, read harder challenge, roadtrip, The Devils, weird horror

faintingviolet's CBR17 Review No:51 · Genres: Featured, Fiction · Tags: black, cbr17bingo, Dark Fantasy, first in a series, found family, joe abercrombie, read harder challenge, roadtrip, The Devils, weird horror ·
Rating:
· 7 Comments

The courage to sing

Songbird in the Light: A Picture Book by Billy Porter and Chris Clarkson

October 29, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Access to online readers is not really an issue for me if I play around with my work computer. However, I am not able to access all that I do wish to read. Thankfully I had access to Songbird in the Light: A Picture Book by Billy Porter and Chris Clarkson. This March 2026 picture book talks about the life and times of performer Billy Porter in a roundabout way. We do not do a deep dive, but we get the overall picture of someone […]

Filed Under: Children's Books, Fiction, Health, Poetry Tagged With: African-American, Billy Porter, Billy Porter and Chris Clarkson, black, Charly Palmer, Chris Clarkso, LGBTQ, music, self-esteem, Social Themes

BlackRaven's CBR17 Review No:479 · Genres: Children's Books, Fiction, Health, Poetry · Tags: African-American, Billy Porter, Billy Porter and Chris Clarkson, black, Charly Palmer, Chris Clarkso, LGBTQ, music, self-esteem, Social Themes ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Shepherds Watch over Their Flocks. And Angels Watch over Shepherds

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison

August 17, 2025 by LittlePlat Leave a Comment

I’m a bit boggled—how did I miss one of Katherine Addison’s books? Addison is the author of the magnificent The Goblin Emperor and the follow up trilogy, The Cemeteries of Amalo*. Usually her books are an automatic pre-order for me. But somehow, I missed that she had also written an alt-universe take on Sherlock Holmes as well.  The book comes with the following tagline: “This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery Tagged With: alternative history, angels, black, cbr17bingo, katherine addison, Sherlock Holmes, vampires

LittlePlat's CBR17 Review No:17 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery · Tags: alternative history, angels, black, cbr17bingo, katherine addison, Sherlock Holmes, vampires ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

The stories of two young men

Hands by Torrey Maldonado

Garvey in the Dark by Nikki Grimes

March 21, 2024 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

I needed a short read or two. I found two, while terribly short looking, books that also felt like they would have some “meat” to them. And those books were Hands by Torrey Maldonado and Garvey in the Dark by Nikki Grimes. I was familiar with Grimes, as they are the author of Garvey’s Choice and others I enjoyed reading. But Maldonado was new. Hands looked like it would be a boxing book. And it is, somewhat. But really what the book is about are […]

Filed Under: Children's Books, Fiction, Health, Poetry, Young Adult Tagged With: African American & Black, black, boxing, Covid-19, family, mothers, music, Nikki Grimes, Novels in Verse, pandemic, responsibility, siblings, Sisters, Social Themes, Stepfathers, Torrey Maldonado

BlackRaven's CBR16 Review No:109 · Genres: Children's Books, Fiction, Health, Poetry, Young Adult · Tags: African American & Black, black, boxing, Covid-19, family, mothers, music, Nikki Grimes, Novels in Verse, pandemic, responsibility, siblings, Sisters, Social Themes, Stepfathers, Torrey Maldonado ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

“…loving Blackness enough to see its assets so that dark children matter.” Dr. Bettina L. Love

Hair Story by NoNieqa Ramos

August 28, 2021 by NTE Leave a Comment

I’m having a hard time explaining just how much I loved this book, but I’m going to do my best. First off, Hair Story is own voices written & illustrated, and both the author, NoNieqa Ramos, and the illustrator, Keisha Morris, include their own hair stories at the back of the book, which was a lovely surprise.     Second, do you see these illustrations? The texture and colors and patterns and perfection of them?  You can see the love in that grandmother’s face, the joy in […]

Filed Under: Children's Books Tagged With: afro-latinx, black, cbr13bingo, cultural appreciation, Hair Story, Illustrations, Keisha Morris, Latinx, NoNieqa Ramos, picture book, poetry, UnCannon

NTE's CBR13 Review No:33 · Genres: Children's Books · Tags: afro-latinx, black, cbr13bingo, cultural appreciation, Hair Story, Illustrations, Keisha Morris, Latinx, NoNieqa Ramos, picture book, poetry, UnCannon ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

It’s a literal railroad

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

May 25, 2021 by caragwapa Leave a Comment

“Look outside as you speed through, and you’ll find the true face of America.” I was hesitant to start this book since I had so much trouble with finishing (really, starting) Zone One (from the same author) but I was pleasantly surprised that this immediately got my attention and I found myself compulsively reading it.  The story us about Cora, a slave in a plantation in Georgia.  Her mother had escaped when she was young and she is an outcast even from her fellow slaves.  […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: #alternatehistory, #historicalfiction, black, Colson Whitehead

caragwapa's CBR13 Review No:12 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: #alternatehistory, #historicalfiction, black, Colson Whitehead ·
· 0 Comments
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