Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Monster Take on Sherlock Holmes

A Study In Emerald by Neil Gaiman

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I’m not usually one for graphic novels, but I will read Neil Gaiman’s grocery list, so when my friend brought this over and said ‘you gotta read this,’ I took the opportunity. “A Study In Emerald” closely follows Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original “A Study in Scarlet,” but with cooler characters and monsters. To give anything else of the plot away will spoil the joy of this story too much, so I’ll leave it at that and let those who love Gaiman and Sherlock Holmes […]

Are you Longing for some Longing?

Normal People by Sally Rooney

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This was one of Faintingviolet’s top reads of 2019, and I also desperately wanted to watch the Hulu show, especially after Dustin’s review.  They were both right- this book was great. If you haven’t seen the Hulu trailer, this is a teenage/college age lovestory, set first in Sligo, northwest Ireland, and later in Dublin.  The two main characters are flawed but compelling- Marianne is smart, witty, not particularly pretty and uninterested in what other people think about her.  She also has the fortune/misfortune of being […]

Lyrical, Soulful, Compelling

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugan

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I’ve been wanting to read Half Blood Blues, Esi Edugan’s Giller prize-winning, Booker prize-shortlisted novel, ever since it came out in 2011- its only taken a “Music” bingo square to finally get me there.  Half-Blood Blues is a beautifully written, deeply layered, and historically fascinating novel about a group of mixed-race jazz musicians in Paris and Berlin during the wild interwar years.  The novel opens in Paris in 1941, when one of the band members gets ‘pinched’ by the occupying Nazis. From this navel, the […]

September CBR12 Bingo Check-In

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We are halfway through the CBR12 Book Bingo Reading Challenge. That’s amazing because time has no meaning and yet the calendar pages keep turning. Administrative Stuff There are 34 Cannonballers playing, and you have posted 293 reviews. This post is a place for you to ask questions, ask for recommendations for categories, and find a review buddy if you need one. You can always post your questions in our Facebook group – Cannonball Read Book Chat, or on Twitter @cannonballread. The Players All participants and their bingo […]

Say Their Names

Six Days in Cincinnati by Dan Mendez Moore

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Cbr12bingo No money I received this graphic history as a gift recently. It’s a short book about the race riots that rocked my hometown Cincinnati in 2001 and about the systemic racism that runs throughout our country still. Writer/artist Dan Mendez Moore was a high school student in Cincinnati when police violence led to public demonstrations, riots and a curfew. This story, first published in 2012, revisits his experience of those days and provides the point of view of key community leaders who were also […]

“You know those people where it’s like, you know they could kill you, but it would be a privilege to die by their hand?” #CBRBingo – Friendship

Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills

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This was adorable. I don’t read much contemporary YA, but if they were all as cute and funny as this was, I would read a lot more of it. I picked this book up on a whim in a used bookstore last summer. I remembered that several of my friends had given it glowing reviews, so despite my sometime-aversion to the genre, I bought it. A well-spent $9, for sure. (And my copy, an Owl Crate version somebody sold for credit, is signed by the […]



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