Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This has been such a good year for mysteries and caper comedies. Add this one to your list. #CBRBINGO – Pandemic

Finlay Donovan is Killing It (Finlay Donovan, #1) by Elle Cosimano

by Leave a Comment

This is another one of those books I knew only after reading the synopsis was going to be A Book For Me. I’ve gotten better and better as I’ve gotten older at picking books I know I will like*. There is a reason most of my reviews are four stars, and it’s not because I go easy on the books, it’s because I know what I will like. Occasionally a stinker slips in and if I give in to curiosity (which happens quite frequently) or […]

“The fact that they have families and parents . . . is why they shouldn’t do these things, not why we should forgive them.” #CBRBINGO – Uncannon

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

by 2 Comments

I have had terrible luck with lit-fic so far this year, so it’s nice that my streak is finally broken. This book was great. Depressing, but great. And I never would have picked it up on my own except that it qualified nicely for the novel in translation category (non-European) for the Read Harder Challenge, and it was short! And very well regarded. So thanks, Read Harder! Doing your job. Kim Jiyoung is a young mother living in Korea. She quit her job in marketing […]

Anxious People: Not what I expected, but charming

Anxious People by Frederik Backman

by Leave a Comment

This was our June Book Club pick. This is an unexpected and delightful novel. I saw all of the press and buzz about A Man Called Ove and was never really tempted to read it. But this delightfully quirky and human story has made me curious about Backman’s other works.  This is a novel about a bank robbery. And an apartment. And a hostage situation. And the conflict between City and country Swedeners. And love. And marriage. And winning. And losing. And dying . And […]

Don’t Mess with the Dairy Queen

Bad Axe County by John Galligan

by 2 Comments

CBR13 Book Bingo Challenge:  NEW SERIES So last week I joined some college friends at a rented cabin near Richland Center, Wisconsin, for a couple of days (which is about 75 minutes NW of Madison for those of you playing at home).  We went into Spring Green one day and stopped at Arcadia Books for coffee and some browsing.  I saw a display for the upcoming release of John Galligan’s mystery novel, Bad Moon Rising, that included a stack of his earlier books and thought, […]

This book was supposed to help with my anxiety – not exacerbate it

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

by 2 Comments

Watch me use my exceptional capacity of being a slacker to my own advantage when I profit off my backlog of 10+ unreviewed books to tick boxes off the CBR Bingo card like it’s nobody’s business. This was not planned, by the way – I’m just a slacker by nature. And to be honest, this is actually very much in line with the theme for this particular book, which is supposed to be all about managing anxiety. For those of you who don’t know Matt […]

Unsavory Lamb

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

by 4 Comments

cbr13bingo / Shelfie Sitting on my shelf for many a year, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal is a humorous and disappointing novel about Jesus’ life by Christopher Moore. Jesus’ childhood friend Biff—born Levi—is resurrected and commanded by a soap-opera loving angel to write an account of Jesus’ life before the age of 30. Biff is indignant that he is never mentioned in the New Testament and strives to fill out the missing story. Jesus—called Joshua in the book—is an adolescent when the […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo