Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

It Can’t Be All About White Women

Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women White Feminists Forgot by Mikki Kendall

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BINGO: UnCannon: The author is a Black woman Best for: People who consider themselves feminists. In a nutshell: Author Mikki Kendall shares a variety of essays covering topics and areas that very much fall under the concept of feminism but that are often left out of the discussion by mainstream white feminists. Worth quoting: “Girls like me seemed to be the object of the conversations and not full participants, because we were a problem to be solved, not people in our own right.” “We have […]

Too Clever For Its Own Good

The Paragon Hotel by Lindsay Faye

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Bingo Square: The Roaring 20’s I loved Lindsay Faye’s The Gods of Gotham and already had a copy of this book – seemed like the perfect fit for the 20’s. From the topic matter and description, it was but I was incredibly disappointed with this novel, especially since it should have been my cup of tea. The narrator is Alice “Nobody” James – as the novel begins, she is on a train, heading to Portland, Oregon with a gunshot wound, fleeing her former life in […]

One of the best books I’ll read this year

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

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#CBR12 Bingo: I Wish (Travelling anywhere right now seems like an utter impossibility, but I would love to be able to hang out on Marsyas Island with its cast of unique residents) Linus Baker does not live an exciting or interesting life. When he’s not visiting orphanages and checking up on children and teens with unusual abilities or magical powers, he sits in his utterly anonymous cubicle and writes detailed and thorough reports. He goes home to his non-descript little house, occasionally exchanges words with his […]

You try your best, or you don’t try your best. The mountains don’t care.

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple

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This year I am very excited to finally be taking part in Cannonball Bingo. Today Will Be Different is filling out the “Shelfie” square as a book from my bookshelf (one that sat on my shelf for way too long before I finally got around to reading it). I am lucky enough to have a friend who gets tickets to a Pen and Podium lecture series. She has invited me to a few literary lectures from visiting authors. So far, the lectures have all been very interesting. But what’s […]

Fresh Start and Fresh View on War in Afghanistan

The Breadwinner: A Novel by Deborah Ellis

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Cbr12bingo Fresh Start Published in 2000, The Breadwinner is the first book in a four-part YA series that looks at events in Afghanistan from the point of view of an eleven-year-old girl named Parvana. This young adult series introduces readers to the war-filled history of a country that had once been more open and free but has come under the control of the Taliban. The Breadwinner has been made into an animated film and graphic novel, which I read a few Cannonballs ago. I can […]

CBR Diversions – Can You Recommend a Book?

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Now that the CBR12 Book Bingo Reading Challenge has begun, the hunt is on for books to fill squares. Some squares, like The Roaring 20’s and Money, are ripe for recommendations. All book recommendations are welcome, because what works for you for White Whale might be someone else’s Shelfie. In the kick-off post, vel veeter got us started with some color in the title recommendations: Often in book challenges, they use colors….which I find difficult to find. But I did some research: The Yellow House […]



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