Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The bond between mother and daughter, the joy of shared food, and the devastating loss of a parent – CBR14 Bingo: Heart

Crying in H-Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner

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CBR14 Bingo: “Heart” –  In this heartbreaking memoir, Michelle Zauner shares her love for her mother and their connection through a love of food. Last year I heard on NPR an interview with Zauner, a Korean American, when she released her debut book, Crying in H-Mart: A Memoir.  I was instantly interested in small part because I too shop at H-Mart, a Korean grocery chain in the United States.  Then I became engrossed by listening to Zauner talk about her mother’s death and food.  I […]

“You kids are different from the farm animals who have no way out. Running away in order to live is fine. Perfectly fine.”

Silver Spoon Vol. 1-15 by Hiromu Arakawa

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CBR14Bingo: Series (it’s a series) This is one of my favorite manga series and one I was re-reading again just out of a desire to read something cheerful and warm-hearted. Silver Spoon is by the same author as Fullmetal Alchemist, her much more famous work. It follows Yuugo Hachiken, who decides to go to an agricultural high school in rural Hokkaido because he hit a plateau in mainstream academia and was pushing himself so hard to succeed that he’d lost all enjoyment in life. By going […]

Levi…*heart eyes*

Fangirl, the Manga. Vol 2 by Rainbow Rowell, Sam Maggs and Gabi Nam

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4.5 stars CBR14 Bingo: Bodies (Cath and Levi become a lot more aware of each other’s bodies in this volume – not like THAT. Get your mind out of the gutter!) Cath has started getting more comfortable at college and with her classes, but she still finds it difficult to reconcile the fact that her twin, Wren, is having such a great time without her. Wren is embracing the party lifestyle and seems to spend a lot of evenings out drinking with her roommate. Meanwhile, […]

“My dear chap, this is a bookshop. There’s never anywhere better to be.”

Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles

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CBR14 Bingo: Snake (SPOILER: being a thoroughly disreputable sort, Kim also turns out to betray Will at least once during the story) Will Darling has inherited his late uncle’s bookshop and is grateful for the fact. After serving in World War I, most of his skills involve killing swiftly and efficiently, not really a commodity on the post-war job markets back in England. Now he just needs to get some idea of all the books actually in the shop and get on with being a […]

‘The ocean was exactly as she’d imagined it’

Summer Sisters (1998) by Judy Blume

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CBR14 BINGO square: Shadow. (Holiday would be too easy.) Judy Blume’s Summer Sisters (1998) is a mood, a vibe, an energy, rather than a novel. It’s the salty taste of chips (or fries) and the soft sweetness of ice cream and the sharp chill of a vodka and cranberry with ice. It’s a long slow afternoon by the shore, a long slow stare into the shadows of the past. It’s strawberry lipgloss and windblown hair and new yellow swimsuits and singing along to ABBA and holding […]

So are you glad I plunged in after you now?

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

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CBR14 BINGO: Camel/Adapt Square (Adapting to a family chock full of magic when you only have a drop/Adapting to a new job and a whole magical world you did not know existed. A whole lot of adapting going on.) Witty banter, slow burning spiciness and magic make for a great little book. Edwin, a member of a powerful magical family, is the runt of his lineage. Born with just a little spark of magic, Edwin makes do as a liaison between the British government and magical […]



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