cbr12bingo – Page 71 – Cannonball Read 17

Everyone’s got something to hide… (CBR12Bingo: No money)

Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff

July 20, 2020 by octothorp Leave a Comment

So many of my reviews of books that were “meh” or worse conclude with “back to the goodwill from whence you came” or “into the resale pile.” This book was the result of those resale piles being turned into cold hard cash (hahaha of course not, I’m too cheap and the bookstore gives a premium if you take your sale back as store credit, and let’s be real, my dumb ass would just buy more books with it anyway). Total impulse buy, but I’m a […]

I fail to can (CBR12Bingo: Uncannon)

Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

July 20, 2020 by octothorp Leave a Comment

When I was a wee pretentious lass (as opposed to a pretentious woman who needs to lose ten pounds) I decided to see how much I could communicate by speaking in Simpsons quotes and Radiohead lyrics. It was precisely as awful as it sounds, and I want reach through the fabric of space time to smack teenage Octothorp upside the head. This reads QUITE a bit like that, but with lots of bible stuff in between, so it’s more or less the exact worst book […]

You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain

July 20, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

CBR12Bingo – Friendship This is probably the tenth or so time I’ve read Huckleberry Finn, but the first time I have read it directly after reading the Adventure of Tom Sawyer, which changes things a little. Having re-read Tom Sawyer just previous to this, the very first thing that stands out is how much more the book seems to want to be doing. Tom Sawyer is about childhood and lampooning both the ways we talk about childhood, treat children, and write about childhood. Huckleberry Finn […]

Lying in bed, I abandoned the facts again and was back in Ambrosia.

Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse

July 20, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

CBR12Bingo – Book Club From the David Bowie Book Club – http://www.bowiebookclub.com/episodes/2018/5/19/billy-liar-by-keith-waterhouse One of the things that happens in so many of the “angry young man” books is that they’re desperately self-serious and ultimately unfunny. There’s a lot of self-loathing, not a lot of honest reflection, and plenty of feeling sorry for oneself. And while this book has all of that and more, it’s actually funny, which helps a lot. At first when I started reading this book, I thought it was a kind of […]

Whenever my mother drove us from coastal Mississippi to New Orleans to visit my father on the weekend, she would say, “Lock the doors.”

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

Navigate Your Stars by Jesmyn Ward

July 20, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

CBR12Bingo – Nostalgia Men We Reaped: 5/5 Stars I can’t say I am nostalgic here, as I can’t imagine a childhood and teenage in America much different from mine, but I am about the age of Jesmyn Ward’s brother Joshua (and some of the other men and boys mentioned in this book), so it provides an interesting contrast to say the least. This 2013 memoir comes at the heels of Jesmyn Ward’s National Book Award winning novel Salvage the Bones and right before her second National […]

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The Next to Die by Sophie Hannah

July 19, 2020 by Ellesfena 4 Comments

Bingo: Reader’s Choice, replacing the Roaring 20s square Everyone makes mistakes, but I now have to spend my Sunday night grappling with the fact that I chose to read this book of my own free will. I am not okay. It seems like the general consensus is that Sophie Hannah’s first few Spilling CID mysteries were okay–at least worth reading if you like that sort of thing. I certainly did–I remember tearing through the first three or four. I kept reading after that, even with […]

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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