Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

It’s about the Monkey Trial but so much more

Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

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Cbr11bingo History/schmistory Inherit the Wind, the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, was inspired by the “Scopes Monkey Trial” of 1925. That real historic event brought the attention of the nation to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, as two titans — William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow — battled in a courtroom over the place of Darwin’s theory of evolution in the classroom. This matter, sadly, is still debated today, which makes the play as timely as ever. Yet, Inherit the Wind […]

“To be polite, unoffendable, persistent, boring, friendly: in other words, to lie”

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

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I read and loved Flaubert’s Parrot in college, so I was really looking forward to reading another book by Barnes, especially a book that won the Booker Prize in 2011.  The Sense of Ending is a slim novella that winds a lot of ideas into its relatively few pages.  The plot outline is fairly simple: our first person narrator, a retired Brit divorcee named Tony Webster, receives a lawyer’s letter informing him that he has been left a diary in a will.  The diary belonged […]

…stay away from duels between sorcerers, parties to which you’re not invited, and houses full of corpses.

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall

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CBR11 BINGO: Rainbow Flag OMG. OMG. OMG. Totally going to fan girl all over this one. I did a quick search and it looks like nobody has reviewed this for CBR yet. A few folks have read and reviewed Alexis Hall’s romances though so the author should be familiar to some. Those of you who are fans of the following series: Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate, Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock and V. E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic….. buckle up! This book is right up your alley! […]

Without shelter, we stand in daylight.

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

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CBR11 Bingo: Science! I am not a science-y person, but I am a pretty avid gardener. Having spent a lot of time playing in the dirt, coaxing plant life to flourish and googling to find out what bug is terrorizing my plants, I am a sucker for fiction that circles the natural sciences. Barbara Kingsolver is the first author that I encountered that delves in that particular niche. A friend recommended her book “Prodigal Summer” to me several years ago and I was hooked. She […]

When you don’t know you, how can anyone else?

A Year Without a Name: A Memoir by Cyrus Grace Dunham

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#cbr11bingo #RainbowFlag Once again, I find myself really wishing I did not have to rate A Year Without a Name: A Memoir. It is one of those books with little in between the “love it or hate it” feeling. Much of what I felt is not politically correct due to how much of the subject, style of writing and even the narrator was unpleasant to read about. Yet, being in that “uncomfortable zone” probably is the point. Cyrus Grace Dunham is not looking to make […]

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike… (Bingo)

Ride with Me by Ruthie Knox

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#CBR11 Bingo: Travel Tom is a brooding loner with a past, who gave up the corporate life and now works as a bike mechanic. He’s estranged from most of his family, with the exception of his sister. Determined to cycle the Trans-America trail, from Oregon to Virginia, he’s annoyed when he discovers said sister has been e-mailing someone (as him) to arrange for a riding partner. When he finds out that the “Alex” his sister has been e-mailing is, in fact, a Lexie, he is […]



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