Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“She used to think the sea the one blessing of winter: even though the world around her was bleak, the water seldom lost its color. Today the contrast between the dead black and the rich blue is almost impossible to believe in.”

The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve

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In one word: Unrelenting Cannonball Bingo Bingo: Book Club I picked up this book as it was the September offering of my local library book club that was meeting in person for the first time in five-ever. This was a great book for a book club, in that opinions varied on its merits, and “based on a true story” historical fiction is ripe for conversation. The story is based on a real coastal wildfire that took place in Maine in 1947. In the beginning, this […]

“I feel, therefore I can be free.”

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

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  CBR Bingo: UnCannon Sister Outsider is a collection of essays and speeches by Audre Lorde, as well as including a couple travelogues from trips she took to Russia and Grenada. My formal education never included anything about or by Lorde, and so this is the first thing of hers that I’ve read. It was funny how many times I finished an essay and thought, “I bet this will be my favorite one in the book.” If you are willing to be open to what […]

“I wondered what it was like to live without that weight on your shoulders, the weight of the murdered ancestors, the stolen land, the abused children, the burden every Native person carries.” #CBRBINGO – Fauna

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

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Virgil Wounded Horse is an enforcer on the Rosebud reservation, the home of the Lakota in South Dakota. Due to some fucked up laws, felonies are subject to federal prosecution, and the feds refuse to prosecute many serious crimes on the reservation, leaving murders, rapes, you name it, uninvestigated. The residents turn to Virgil. For some extra cash, he’ll give the perpetrator a beat down, oftentimes a very violent one. Vigilante justice is more reliable than the so-called justice of white people. The plot kicks […]

“The greatest possible irony would be if in our endless quest to fill our lives with comfort and happiness we created a world that had neither.”

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

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CBR Bingo square: Home I’ve always loved Bill Bryson’s travelogues, but I haven’t read most of his other books. At Home has never interested me and I wouldn’t have read it if it hadn’t fit this Bingo square so well, but I should have known that if anyone can make the history of brick making interesting, it’s Bryson. The book is loosely structured as a tour through his family’s house in the English countryside, a former rectory built in the 1800s. Each chapter is devoted to […]

Not My Favorite

Her Body & Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

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BINGO: Myths: The first short story is a clever retelling of urban legends. Best for: People who like a bit of sex with their short stories. In a nutshell: A collection of essays exploring womanhood. Worth quoting: ‘ “Do you hate my body, Mom?” she says. Her voice splinters in pain, as if she were about to cry. “You hated yours, clearly, but mine looks just like yours used to, so—“ ‘ Why I chose it: Recommended at my Book Spa appointment. Review: Some of […]

A monk and a robot go camping with a tea cart in search of crickets

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

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Bingo 24: Travel A Psalm for the Wild Built is a travel story in both the literal and metaphorical sense. The monk, Sibling Dex, has lived most of their life in The City but they have this sudden urge to try and find crickets to listen to. To do this, they first decide to become a travelling tea monk. Then they decide that they need to go off into the real wilds of the world to find crickets, since they have found success with the […]



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