Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The boredom, the rush, the despair, the fear and the hope

Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze

by Leave a Comment

Bingo: Rep (with a bingo for row 3) CW: violence, drug use. Snoopz, our protagonist, is in a car that’s slowly trailing a woman down a fancy street in London. As she reaches the front door of her house, Snoopz and his friend Gotti get out, sneak up behind her, and strike: Snoopz puts her in a chokehold while Gotti struggles to snap off the woman’s diamond-encrusted Cartier. Snoopz spots a giant diamond ring on her finger, but try as he might, he can’t remove […]

So, Do You Like Knives?

The Martial Arts of Indonesia: A Guide to Pencak Silat, Kuntao and Traditional Weapons by Donn F. Draeger

by 1 Comment

  Yes, I am really amusing myself here for picking a ‘sportsball’ book where balls don’t really feature in the sports of focus. To make up for that though—as I discovered—nearly everything else that you could think of has been used as a weapon in an Indonesian martial art at some point. This includes knives, more knives, swords, shields, sticks, more knives, whips, chains, and teeth. And the knives? More knives than spam in Monty Python. Some of these people folks really love their knives. […]

But You Can’t Take the Neighborhood Out of You

Gravesend by William Boyle

by Leave a Comment

Read as part of CBR13Bingo: White Whale  And so I circle back to the beginning of William Boyle’s catalog, with his new one Shoot the Moonlight Out already in hand. I tried reading Gravesend multiple times over the years. But it didn’t stick. It reminded me of George Pelecanos’ work, which I admire more than enjoy: character-focused neighborhood-centric stories in which crime just randomly happens and people get drawn in because they can’t escape their circumstances. Those books always sound like fun more than they read like it. At […]

Home Is Where You Make It

The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela

by Leave a Comment

In 2010, Natasha, a lecturer at a university in Scotland, is shocked when her student Oz is arrested in her presence as a possible jihadist, especially as she has become close to him and his mother. In the 19th century, Imam Shamil, Natasha’s research subject and one of Oz’s ancestors, is the leader of the Caucasian resistance against Imperial Russia. In an effort to turn the tide and to get his son Jamaleldin back, who was kidnapped by Russian forces many years earlier and has […]

“We don’t live in a series of plot points. We should be thankful for that. We should realize how lucky we are.” #CBRBINGO – Home

How Lucky by Will Leitch

by Leave a Comment

I was a bit nervous for this one! We’ve got a middle-aged white guy writing from the POV of a protagonist with a pretty specific disability (SMA, a degenerative disease*) that he doesn’t share, and I wasn’t familiar with Leitch as a writer, but this was the only BOTM the month it came out that interested me, so I took a chance, and I’m glad I did! I thought the whole thing was very sensitively done, and I thought Daniel ended up being a great […]

“In the clear and steady gleam of electric lights, superstition turns to foolishness; in the crucible of the combustion engine, false beliefs are burned away.” (Bingos #9 & 10)

Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite by Zoraida Cordova & Natalie Parker (editors)

by Leave a Comment

My Halloween read this year is this collection of new vampire tales edited by the team of Zoraida Cordova and Natalie Parker. I enjoy vampire stores because they offer so many different views onto the human condition, if you go looking for them. In Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite Cordova and Parker, along with the assembled authors, take the time to dig in and explore these angles – with postscripts by Cordova and Parker after each story. Let’s handle individual stories in […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo