Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Coming to America

The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb

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CBR 14 Bingo: New I’d left my knowledge of Ellis Island behind in fourth grade; I’ve never read any book about it before this. Alma is a matron on Ellis Island; Francesca is a young woman hailing from Sicily. They become friends, but when as efforts to reduce corruption on the island come to the forefront, they must choose whether they will step forward or stay silent to protect themselves. Long ago in elementary school, our teacher decided that a good way for us to […]

Came For The Recipes, Stayed for the Memoir

Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora by Reem Assil

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CBR 14 Bingo: Star The author is a well-known, award-winning chef. I am on a cooking spree these days – what can I say? It relaxes me. And I especially enjoyed this cookbook, not the least because I love Middle Eastern cuisine. Arabiyaa is a mix of cookbook and memoir, telling us the stories of the recipes but also of Assil’s life and her path toward becoming a chef (hint: it’s not straightforward). The book is divided into five sections that cover all the basics of […]

Much said beautifully but too much left unsaid

The Maker of Swans: A Novel by Paraic O’Donnell

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Cbr14bingo bird On the face of it, this novel has a lot going for it: murder, a secret society, an English manor, a man servant who has seen it all. And yet the book was quite frustrating to read. On one hand, the prose is exquisite and the premise of the plot arresting. On the other hand, O’Donnell teases the reader without providing a satisfying payoff in the end. I didn’t want to put it down, but ultimately, I felt sort of cheated. The novel […]

Heartwrenching and So Good

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

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Bingo: Heart (themes of familial love) What a lovely book. The Best We Could Do is a graphic novel by Thi Bui. It’s a story about her family. It starts with Thi giving birth to her son, and as she comes to terms with becoming a mother, she finds herself thinking about her relationships with her own parents and her childhood. From there, she explores her parents’ childhoods, how they met, their life in Viet Nam prior to and during the war, and their escape to the […]

Peace like a river flows

Farm: A Year in the Life of an American Farmer by Richard Rhodes

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Bingo category – Mind Farm is the accounting of a year on a family farm in central Missouri.  Tom, Sally, and their children raise corn, soybeans, and hogs on this farm, which is actually a patchwork of smaller farms.  The year is mid-1980s, so there are the Reagan/Clinton farm policies to be dealt with, as well as issues such as how the land can be plowed, what to do about storage if there isn’t enough, and the ever temperamental weather situation.  The fact is that […]

The Story the Torn Gown Told

The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America by John Wood Sweet

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CBR 14 Bingo: Question Lanah Sawyer was questioned again and again in an effort to get at a truth she had already told. One evening, a teenage girl and a man who called himself a lawyer went for a walk on the Battery. But Lanah Sawyer refused to stay silent about what he had done to her – and charged Harry Bedlow with rape. I have heard of Lanah Sawyer before, briefly, though I cannot recall whether it was in history class or in Gail […]



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