Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Stickiest of Sticks

The Undaunted by Kate Archer

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CBR 14 Bingo: Cozy An Heyer-esque read, this book has minimal angst, maintains cheer, and ends happily all round. Caroline is the latest of the young women to be presented by the Society of Sponsoring Ladies, but being set loose on the scandalous city of Brighton may end up too much for her reputation. Of course I snapped this book up on NetGalley as soon as it became available – I’ve been really enjoying this series, and it turns out that this is probably my […]

Are you shining just for me?

City of Girls (2019) by Elizabeth Gilbert

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CBR14 Bingo square: Scandal! Vivian Morris is involved in a scandal that scandalises her suburban upper middle-class family; the theatre is generally considered to be a disreputable environment by the polite society that relishes it. Whether or not you like City of Girls will depend on whether or not you like Vivian Morris, narrator and heroine, who is a white rich suburban girl (daddy owns a mine, mother is obsessed with horses) kicked out of Vassar in 1940 and sent to live with her theatrical […]

“Tragedy was undiscerning and totally unfair.”

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

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I read Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka months (months!) ago and absolutely loved it, to the point that I felt too overwhelmed to write a review for it at the time. So, I’ve now sabotaged myself because I don’t remember the book as well as I would like to, so I will likely be unable to do justice to this book that I found incredibly smart and moving. Notes on an Execution tells the story of a serial killer largely through the eyes […]

The warmth and joy of childhood, perfectly captured in manga form

Yotsuba&! (Vols 1-15) by Kiyihiko Azuma

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CBR14Bingo: Heart (this manga is full of heart and warm feelings) I honestly find it easier to write negative reviews than positive ones, because when I love a book intensely it’s hard to come up with something beyond “I love this! Read it!” But I will do my best to get across why you should spend some time in the world of Yotsuba&!. This series follows an extremely energetic 5-year old, the titular Yotsuba, and her adventures. In the first volume, she and her dad move […]

“It’s not circus if it isn’t under a tent.”

Through Sun, Rain, Wind, and Mud: On the Road with Cole Bros. Circus by Bill Carter

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CBR14Bingo: Camel (the camel is an exotic animal, and there are photos of exotic animals in this book) The title’s sentiment isn’t one I completely agree with, having seen great circus in an arena setting, but the experience of sitting in a tent does elevate the experience and bring a more elemental feeling. I recently got to see Paul Binder talk about the circus and he pointed out the core nature of a round ring, and that there is a fundamental power in sitting in […]

Australian outback tall tales

Larrimah by Caroline Graham and Kylie Stevenson

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Bingo square:  Question – What happened to Paddy Moriarty and Kelly?  What is it about Larrimah that drives the feuding and petty hatreds? “There’s a bottomless well of trouble in this town and it’s hard to know which parts we have a right to haul to the surface.” Larrimah is an expansion on the Lost in Larrimah podcast created by the journalist authors.  Ostensibly a ‘true crime’ story about a missing man (and dog) the podcast digs into the complex relationships between the mostly elderly inhabitants of the […]



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