CBR15 – Page 19 – Cannonball Read 17

Love, Destiny, and People You Can’t Fucking Trust

Stormwind of Shadows by Jasmine Jenkins, Sophia Suliman

September 14, 2023 by Sarah Leave a Comment

Listen, these books are damn good. I don’t know what to tell you! If Lost Stars was about the Greywick siblings discovering the chaos and pitfalls of fated purpose, this installment is about that same approach to fated love. Because it turns out: 1) The problem with magical Love at First Sight is that it doesn’t care if you live wildly incompatible lives, and also he’d readily murder you if he knew your biggest secret. 2) The problem with enemies-to-lovers is that you can’t fucking […]

How can a novel about dementia be beautiful?

The Swimmers: A Novel by Julie Otsuka

September 13, 2023 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

Cbr15bingo Adulthood I have reviewed Julie Otsuka’s previous two novels and loved them both. Otsuka is an amazingly talented writer. Her novels are not long; her sentences tend to be short but deliver beautiful imagery and subtle emotion. They are, as I have mentioned previously, like a pointillist painting in verbal form. Both When the Emperor Was Divine and The Buddha in the Attic, critically acclaimed winners of numerous awards, deal with Otsuka’s family history: immigration from Japan to California and the experience of US […]

“What would happen if I were to leave? No one notices the air they breathe.”

The Air You Breathe: A Novel by Frances De Pontes Peebles

September 12, 2023 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

Cbr15bingo South America Bingo! When I was looking around for a book to fill the South America square on my bingo card, I came across Frances De Pontes Peebles’ The Air You Breathe. NPR’s reviewer compared it to Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend series and said that they tore through this novel in 2 nights. It is similar in some ways to Ferrante’s work, and I likewise finished it within days. The Air You Breathe is a soap opera of a story about friendship and […]

Masterful interweaving of past and present storylines to tell a slice of demon Kai’s life.

Witch King by Martha Wells

September 11, 2023 by Dome'Loki 1 Comment

CBR15 Bingo: Violence – “Kai looked at her through the black film of the veil, “You could say ‘be violent’ instead.” Tahren, who Kai was beginning to suspect had a very dry sense of humor, patted his shoulder and said, “Be violent.” Also, the Hierarchs are bent on committing genocide on a continent wide scale. Up to this point, my only exposure to Martha Wells was through The Murderbot Diaries. I instantly fell in love with Murderbot and Well’s excellent writing. I admire how she […]

CBR15 Bingo: Relation”ship”

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

September 10, 2023 by Malin 15 Comments

CBR15 Bingo: Relation”ship” (A book about sisterly love, romantic love and featuring large fishing boats) Apparently, our heroine, Piper Bellinger, is strongly inspired by Alexis Rose in Schitt’s Creek, Tessa Bailey wanted her to have her own happy ending. First of all, I’m not really sure I think Alexis was too badly off at the end of the show, just because she wasn’t shacked up with a man. Her ending seemed perfectly happy to me – not all HEAs need to involve a romantic partner. […]

A complex story about race, class, family and history

The Wedding: A Novel by Dorothy West

September 9, 2023 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

Cbr15bingo politics, racial politics in particular On a summer day on Martha’s Vineyard some time in 1950s America, beautiful Shelby Cole is getting ready to marry the man she loves, and in the 24 hours leading up to the wedding, the reader of Dorothy West’s 1995 novel The Wedding becomes privy to the complicated class and racial politics that swirl around what should be a happy day. West, a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, captures generations’ worth of “striving to succeed while black in […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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