Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Well what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today! (CBR12Bingo: Cannonballer says)

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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It’s kind of funny that the review that made me pull the trigger on this book was one I haven’t even fully read – This is all I saw of KimMiE‘s review until I went back and reviewed it: “I decided to read The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle for the “Cannonballer Says” BINGO square after reading Narfna’s review. Or rather, I should say, after skimming Narfna’s review, because as soon as I saw the basic premise and the spoiler alerts, I averted my eyes […]

The last Jonathan Safran Foer book I will ever read. #CBRBingo – Nostalgia

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

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I picked this book up because a) I’ve owned it forever and pandemic reading has meant trying hard to find books off my own shelves. I’ve owned this for oh, about thirteen years? Back when I still thought I had to read books other people thought were “good” and “important.” And b) because of CBR Bingo, in which the Nostalgia square meant finding a book set during the time in which I was in high school. I had a surprisingly hard time finding books to […]

Important but disappointing

The Last Suttee by Madhu Bazaz Wangu

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CBR12 Bingo: “Book Club” A woman in my local book club picked The Last Suttee (2017) by Madhu Bazaz Wangu. None of us knew anything about it, but it had 4.5 stars on both Amazon and Goodreads, which was promising. Plus, our group is always up for a little international, feminist reading, and this novel sounded both disturbing and intriguing. Unfortunately, The Last Suttee was largely disappointing. Although I appreciate that Wangu was trying to bring attention to major injustice and cruelty, I found it […]

Make sure you vote!

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

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Well, this was an interesting read right before the 2020 U.S. Presidential election!  There are parts in this that are hilarious, heartbreaking, and harrowing.  You have a romance story involving politics, and in both the book and in real life, the election of 2020 is super stressful!  (In the book, if the incumbent president loses, she steps down and a gross white man takes her place. In real life, if the incumbent president wins, thousands more people will needlessly die.  A bit more stressful for […]

This could have been so much better…

Pay the Piper by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple

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Callie is a reporter for her school newspaper, and has landed a backstage pass to interview the band that’s playing in town, Brass Rat.  This is a big deal for Callie, who is only 14 and has wildly over-protective parents, which is strange given the names they saddled their children with.  These paranoid adults have given their children names that guarantee they will have difficulties in life.  I present to you: Marsepolus, Calcephony, and Nickelodeon.  In an era with cell phones, they named their youngest […]

I feel like this should be a YA novel, but it’s not

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Gods of Jade and Shadow is a book where fairy tales and myths collide.  The book begins in a 1920’s version of “Cinderella,” but in Mexico.  Casiopea is a poor cousin of the richest family in their town, and she is given the role of maidservant while her mother is the cook.  Casiopea does as she’s told, but not necessarily as subserviently as her cousin Martín would wish.  One day while the family is away, she gets a chance to open up the forbidden chest […]



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