Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A “Reluctant” Beginning

A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole

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                Welcome to Bingo, where I finally start playing catch up on my stack of unreviewed books I’ve read this year! For Bingo counting purposes, they count as follows: A Princess in Theory is Far and Away. Not only does Prince Thabiso rule the fictional African nation of Thesolo, but the back third of the book requires our heroine, Naledi, to follow him there. Once Ghosted, Twice Shy is Own Voices. Alyssa Cole is a brilliant black woman […]

Civil War Noir

De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage

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Shortlisted for Canada’s biggest literary award, the Giller Prize, I’d heard a lot about DeNiro’s Game, in particular how it was the first novel for its author, Rawi Hage (Lainey Gossip would call him a First Book Bitch).  The novel tells the story of two childhood best friends, Bassam and George, who are living in Beirut in the 1980s civil war.  Written first-person from Bassam’s perspective, we watch the two young men take different paths, and respond in different ways, to the chaos engulfing their […]

Two heads are better than one, unless you are a PushMe-PullYou

My Father’s Words by Patricia MacLachlan

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#cbr11bingo #TwoHeadsareBetterThanOne My Father’s Words by Patricia MacLachlan is a modern story with the classic elements of loss, family, friendships and growth. While some areas are based on the authors own life, this is a fictious story about a young girl, Fiona, and her family dealing with the loss of her father. Told in Fiona’s voice, we see the past mixed in with the current grief the characters all share. But a grief all must process differently. Like many of MacLachlan’s stories, this is a sweet story. […]

Representation is important for the women who don’t want kids, as well (Cannonball!)

Not Another Family Wedding by Jackie Lau

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3.5 stars #CBR11 Bingo: Summer Read (would also work for Cannonballer Recommends and/or Own Voices) Official book description: Natalie Chin-Williams might be a cranky professor of climatology who thinks the world is doomed, but she believes in lasting love…just not for herself. She has a long history of failed relationships, plus the men she dates inevitably want children and she doesn’t.  Now thirty-six and single, Natalie expects endless comments about her love life when she attends her baby sister’s wedding. Worse, weddings are always drama-filled disasters […]

“Maybe the real question is why are your friends so turn-into-pigsable?” BINGO

Circe by Madeline Miller

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#CBR11 Bingo: Remix  (Would also work for Award Winner, Listicle (was on a ton of Best of 2018 lists) and/or Cannonballer Recommends) Official book description: In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe has neither the look nor the voice of divinity, and is scorned and rejected by her kin. Increasingly isolated, she turns to mortals for companionship, leading her to discover a power forbidden to the gods: witchcraft. When love drives Circe […]

A very sweet YA romance with queer characters

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan

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#CBR11 Bingo: Rainbow Flag (author is a lesbian, as is the main character) This book would also fit nicely into the “Youths!” and “Own voices” squares on the bingo card. Official book description: Leila has made it most of the way through high school without having a crush on anyone, which comes as something of a relief. Her Persian heritage makes her different enough; if word got out that Leila liked girls, life would be twice as hard. And what would her parents think? It’s bad […]



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