Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

In the Garden of Eden

Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

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Cbr12bingo Orange, BINGO (color diagonal) Bitter Orange is a rather dark and twisted tale, perfect for those who enjoyed Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen. Set during the summer of 1969, this novel features Lyntons, an old abandoned English home in the country, full of secrets and perhaps ghosts; Cara and Peter, an attractive and lively couple who are temporarily in residence there; and a single, middle-aged woman named Frances who also spends the summer there and acts as our narrator, reviewing the events of that time from […]

An Orange Cover by a Green (CBR12Bingo: Orange – Double Bingo)

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

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I really liked this book and wasn’t expecting to. It was a dollar and I can’t resist a bargain, but I was pretty underwhelmed by The Fault in Our Stars – didn’t hate it but didn’t understand why it was a blockbuster. It’s kind of a recurring problem with teen romances – teenage romances don’t last (well, typically. I met my husband at 18. We were children. Our being together makes little to no sense) – so you know they’re not gonna live happier ever […]

Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto, for helping me escape just when I needed to. (CBR12Bingo: Repeat – friendship)

Ungifted by Gordon Korman

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Everyone told me that I was going to love college, and that I’d just have to grin and bear it through high school. College was okay, I actually didn’t hate high school (despite being a Daria Morgendorffer type, I quickly fell in with the artsy nerdy kids and our school was diverse enough that the teen movie style cliques didn’t really apply, everyone more or less got along with everyone else give or take), but there is no amount of money you could pay me […]

My Mathematical Mind (CBR Bingo: Red – Double bingo)

Fluke by Joseph Mazur

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I really liked this book, even if it felt a bit like homework. (I guess I shouldn’t have been that shocked given that it’s a math book about coincidence, rather than a coincidence book with math.)  It’s the sort of book I wish I had been assigned in school; I never liked math in the abstract and could only retain it when it had a relationship to the real world. I hated algebra until I took chemistry and could use it to balance equations. This […]

Write faster, French! (CBR12Bingo: Shelfie)

The Witch Elm by Tana French

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I had such a hard time starting this book, not because I didn’t want to start it, but because I didn’t want to finish it, and I knew that I would have hit the bottom of my unread French books. I had also heard it was the best of the Dublin Murder Squad books, and I have to disagree, but even her worst for me was a four star, so no shame in being beaten by your own works. And it’s not like this was […]

An easy transition to Tarot

Exploring Tarot Using Radiant Rider-Waite by Avia Venefica

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I recently bought this book and Tarot card deck box set. The cards themselves are beautifully illustrated and colored. However, I’m here to review the book. Venefica starts with a history of Tarot and a brief introduction to how the Tarot deck works. Venefica then dips into a glossary and overview of larger symbology. She does a great job of laying the foundation of exploration of the cards in depth through the book. Each explanation is easy to understand and doesn’t overload the reader with […]



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