Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

If Uncle Stevie’s name is on it, odds are I’m going to read it.

Flight or Fright by Stephen King, Bev Vincent

by 1 Comment

CBR11bingo #TheCollection Its no secret that I am not a huge fan of flying. I understand that it is the safest way to travel. But I usually choose to drive if I can. I like to be able to choose my own route, to leave when I want to leave, to stop when I want to stop. I like to be in control of my journey. I think the lack of that control in an airplane is part of what makes me uneasy. Oh, and […]

Literature was the passport to enter a larger life

At the Same Time by Susan Sontag

by Leave a Comment

Before I read this book I had a lot of name recognition for Susan Sontag (thank you liberal arts degree) but wasn’t that familiar with her actual writing.  At the Same Time is a collection of her essays and speeches, published posthumously in 2007, and comprising three categories: 1) essays about obscure literature; 2) essays about 9/11; and 3) speeches Sontag gave on varied themes (literature, courage, etc.). Given that the major unifying thread for this collection is loose- essay or speech- my opinions on […]

A great book about two things I am terrible at: money and math. #CBRBingo – True Story

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

by Leave a Comment

Smart people who think outside the box are so much fun to read about. I read this book really fast, and it was enjoyable to read the whole way through. I’ve never read a Michael Lewis book before, but I might consider reading more now. He has a simple, clean style that is really efficient at getting his story across, and he has an instinct for the best way to use his material. And he has some great underlying material here. As he notes in […]

Holmes and Watson and… Mary Russell?

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

by Leave a Comment

This is the first installment in Laurie R. King’s series retelling of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The series is set after Holmes’ supposed retirement from detective work, and begins when Mary Russell, a teenage orphan who lives on the farm next to Holmes’ retirement pad, literally runs into Holmes on the moor.  Over time, Mary becomes Holmes’ defacto apprentice, and this first novel is really concerned with laying the groundwork for the series (Wikipedia tells me there are 17 books after this first installment, which […]

Also this has the funniest use of PowerPoint I have ever seen. #CBRBingo – Rainbow Flag

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

by 12 Comments

NB: I was sent an ARC of this book but that has not affected the content of my review. This was such a fun, lovely time. I was expecting some fluff and some ‘falling in love with a priiiince’ fantasy indulgence, and some warmhearted sweetness (and there was all of that in here, as well), but I wasn’t expecting it to be so smart and practical and irreverent. I don’t often laugh out loud, but this book had me cackling at points. It just vibrated […]

Bingo #4

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

by Leave a Comment

In an effort to read some spooky literature for this, the high holy season of Halloween, I went for one of my comfortable standbys, good old Neil Gaiman. Winning both the Hugo and the Nebula awards in 2003 and 2004 for best novella, Coraline deserves all the acclaim it received. Clocking in at only a little over 100 pages, Gaiman works his magic to build a terrifying little universe in a short space. Even though this book was in the children’s section of my library, […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo