cbr12 – Page 11 – Cannonball Read 17

He is full of roots, while she has only branches.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

December 13, 2020 by Leedock Leave a Comment

This author is definitely on my “put in a library request as soon as a new title shows up” list. Schwab’s Shades of Magic series is phenomenal and while I didn’t enjoy them as much, the Monsters of Verity YA series was also very good. I entered her literary treasure trove with the explosion of A Darker Shade of Magic (thanks to many, many CBR reviews way back when) and have been holding off on reading her previous books because it’s always sad when you […]

Seasons’ Greetings and Happy Holidays! Thank you, KatSings!

December 13, 2020 by Mobius_Walker 5 Comments

Fresh off the joyful CBR Zoom in which I got to chat with other book nerds and put some faces to names, I opened my door to a package. The only thing it could be a book as part of the CBR Book Exchange. Double the Cannonball Read fun in one day! Thank you to KatSings for this book and for purchasing it from a local Houston bookshop! House of Leaves is at the top of my TBR list for 2021 and will likely be the […]

Not as good as her last one

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

December 10, 2020 by Malin Leave a Comment

Official book description: Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star glass and cedar palace on an island in British Columbia. Jonathan Alkaitis works in finance and owns the hotel. When he passes Vincent his card with a tip, it’s the beginning of their life together. That same day, Vincent’s half-brother, Paul, scrawls a note on the windowed wall of the hotel: “Why don’t you swallow broken glass.” Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for a company called Neptune Logistics, sees the note from […]

The setting is otherworldly but the trauma is not

Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson

December 9, 2020 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

This is my third Nalo Hopkinson novel, and while I think Brown Girl in the Ring and Sister Mine are better works, I nevertheless liked this one quite a lot. Hopkinson has a unique talent for blending fantasy, science fiction, and Afro-Caribbean culture/history into stories of female empowerment. Midnight Robber’s main character is a girl who suffers trauma at the hands of someone she ought to have been able to trust and who then must find the path to her own healing. Midnight Robber is […]

Playing chess in the dark

The MIrror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

December 9, 2020 by Merryn Leave a Comment

“This is what Henry does. He uses people up. He takes all they give him and more. When he is finished with them he is noisier and fatter and they are husks or corpses.” Thomas Cromwell has given a lot to King Henry. The Mirror and the Light starts with the husk of Anne Boleyn being turned into a corpse so that the King is free to move on to sweet Jane Seymour. Cromwell has gotten rid of the wife he got for his […]

Book that made me go hmmmm…

The Once and Future Spy by Robert Littell

December 7, 2020 by LanierHgts 3 Comments

I am a huge fan of mystery and spy novels, so when I saw this in a Free Little Library I picked it up based on the title alone. I then read the blurb on the back of the book from a NY Times review which called Littell the American John Le Carré. I don’t like Le Carré’s work (based on the two books of his that I have read), so it took me a while to decide I was going to read this anyway […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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