Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Dirty War

Velvet Was The Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Read as Part of CBR13Bingo: Rec’d. Inspired by Emmalita’s review.  This one is a tough one to review. I really wish both Cannonball Read and Goodreads had half stars. This is a solid 3.5. I’m giving it the bump to 4 but just barely. I appreciated Emmalita’s review and others I’ve read. BookMarks collected mostly rave reviews about this book. At times, I felt like it elevated itself. The feeling of Mexico City in the 70s, political tension, Cold War flashpoint was real. The two […]

Still just OK the second time around

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

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CBR 13 Bingo Square: Landscape Genuine question:  It seemed when Cannonball Book Club was announced The Bear and the Nightingale was presented as a reimagining of Rumpelstiltskin, as that was the fairytale linked to for reading the original.  I don’t see a comparison?  Is there something I’m missing?  Or was I incorrect in that the two were paired together in that way?  Would love to know how others interpret as this feels more like “Cinderella” crossed with “The Twelve Months”. For Cannonball Book Club, I had […]

The Epilogue is the best part

The Dark Archive by Genevieve Cogman

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Bingo 21: Pandemic Since the purpose of this square is “whatever I want”, I figured I’d go with the latest (released a while ago) installment of one of my favorite ongoing series’. I like the Invisible Library series overall, although admittedly some installments have been stronger than others. The Dark Archive (#7) adds some good stuff to the overall story, but as a novel itself isn’t the strongest in the series by a good bit. I think the problems for me are that one of […]

Recipes and Stories from Canada would be enough

Taste the Wild by Lisa Nieschlag, Lars Wentrup

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Bingo 20: Landscape As the cover (pictured above) suggests, this book is about Canada (see wooded landscape in mists) in terms of food (it’s part cookbook) and character (it’s part excerpted prose bits from travel and fiction stories, and photography collection too). I can see how all of this could fit together, except that it doesn’t quite work out. The photos are gorgeous but the sentimental/philosophical sayings accompanying them are so out of context that to me at least they come off as either hollow […]

There’s a Lot More to it Than the Title Implies

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

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CBR Bingo: Cityscape First things first, with a title like that it’s obvious that They Both Die at the End is going to be a tearjerker, and I don’t normally enjoy tearjerkers. It’s a testament to Adam Silvera’s writing that I not only finished this book but that I liked it. Mateo and Rufus are teens living in New York who, just after midnight on the same day, get a call from Death-Cast: the service that accurately predicts the day you’ll die and lets you know […]

“I did not know that there are miles between running out of things to say, and running out of the strength to say them.”

Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford

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When we had out August CBR Zoom Check-in I talked about this book and praised it while warning others away. It is still my prevailing view – Somebody’s Daughter is an absolutely fantastic piece of writing where Ashley C. Ford immerses the reader in her childhood, and it is not for the faint of heart or those who may not be in the most stable mental health space. You might know Ashley C. Ford from her podcasts or writings for outlets such as BuzzFeed, The […]



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