Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Worth all the praise it has been given…

Becoming by Michelle Obama

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CBR11 Bingo – Reader’s Choice (in place of Science)   I’ll admit that despite the hype surrounding this book, I initially had little interest in this memoir. It was a ‘meh, I’m sure I’ll get around to it someday, but it’s not near the top of my TBR pile’. I’m thinking it’s partially because I’m not a huge memoir person, partially because I’m not American, and partially because American politics makes my blood boil a little bit (no offence, eh?). But more and more people (specifically […]

No less powerful when reading it 25 year later…

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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CBR11 Bingo: Banned Books   In trying to decide what to read for the Banned Book square, I considered several options, but landed on re-reading this classic. The first time I read To Kill A Mockingbird was in my Grade 10 English class. I remember being shocked as an adult to hear that it was so often protested, because it was just accepted as a classic in my classroom twenty-five-ish years ago. Maybe a difference between where Canadians and Americans draw their lines in the literary sand? […]

“And in taking on the subject of themselves-making themselves vulnerable to the unseen reader-they have exchanged powerlessness for the power that comes with self-awareness.” (CBR11 Bingo)

Couldn’t Keep it to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters by Wally Lamb and the Women of the York Correctional Institution

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The task list for one of my challenges strikes again. Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge includes a book written in prison. I was struggling to decide what to read for this one, I wasn’t particularly interested in reading a book by the type of criminal who would be the type to get a book deal in the first place. Then a bit of internet research led me to this collection edited by Wally Lamb of the work the women of the writing group he co-facilitates […]

Gangs of New York

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

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Cbr11bingo Award Winner, bingo #7 Edith Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature with The Age of Innocence in 1921. I’ve decided that Edith Wharton is one of my favorite authors, right up there with Toni Morrison and Jane Austen. In past CBRs, I’ve reviewed The House of Mirth and Ethan Frome and marveled at her artistry with words and her dissection of the American class system, particularly New York society, at the turn of the 20th century. Her novels […]

Maybe the coolest, mind-trippiest, concept I’ve ever encountered in a book.

S by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst

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CBR11 Bingo – Listicle   If you look this book up on Goodreads, it ends up on several of their book lists, including “Best Experimental Books Ever”, “Books With Innovative Designs”, and “Books You Can’t Read On A Kindle”. All of these categories hint at the unique design concept which makes this book the amazing piece of work that it is (and with JJ Abrams (yes, that one) as the co-creator, it’s not a shock). The story is about Jen, a university undergrad who works […]

Where you found the real McCoy, the real grace and the real heart-stopping evil, was right inside the human mind.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

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CBR11bingo: Reading the TBR BINGO, Four corners plus center square: Remix, Reading the TBR, Summer Read, Cannonballer Says, Own Voices I think my favorite thing about CBR bingo is that it motivates me to go the library and borrow the books that have been languishing on my TBR list. Good Omens is yet another in the long registry of “Why the hell (ahem) did I wait so long to read this book?” It seems improbable that this novel could be floating around the periphery of […]



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