Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“An hour, once it lodges in the queer element of the human spirit, may be stretched”

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2012) by emily m. danforth

by Leave a Comment

CBR Bingo square “Queer Lives”: The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a queer YA novel, and was banned in a middle school in 2015 in Delaware for “inappropriate language.” I mean, fuck that. The novel was also criticised by the School Library Journal for its length and pacing, and my inclination is also to say fuck that, but I do understand that this is the kind of thing where YMMV. It did take a while to get into, but I was fully immersed when I did. […]

Gini Koch encouraged me to join the team and ‘touch an alien’, so I did!

Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch

by 3 Comments

CBR Bingo: North America – Touched by an Alien is set in the American Southwest, particularly Arizona and New Mexico. A few years ago I picked up Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by G.J. Koch and it was a blast.  Funny, fast paced, sci-fi adventure.  Afterwards, I looked for more books by the author and discovered she also wrote under Gini Koch and was impressed by the volume of books on the shelf at the bookstore.  As I didn’t know where to start, I got overwhelmed and went […]

How do we become human except in the face of adversity?

Happiness by Aminatta Forna

by Leave a Comment

HALF CANNONBALL! CBR15 BINGO (Africa square: The main character is African. Author is of African descent: father from Sierra Leone. Various political/military situations in the book take place in Africa.) Yet another book that jumped out to me initially because of its eco-fiction bent: studying urban dwelling fox in London. However, it turned out to be about so much more than that. Attila is an itinerant psychologist from Ghana that specializes in PTSD. Regularly traveling to give keynote speeches and expert testimony, his early career […]

There is the crime and there is the silence.

The Guest Book by Sarah Blake

by Leave a Comment

CBR15 BINGO (You Are Here square: Parts of the book take place in coastal Maine and I read the book while I was visiting the area.) I can fall into a good story fairly easily, but there is something to be said about reading a book in its actual setting. A little sea air and waves crashing against rocky cliffs? Summer reading heaven. This novel spans three generations of the Miltons, an “old money” family in New York who went on to build an empire […]

…he wonders, nearly seriously, if he should steal the marlin.

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan

by Leave a Comment

CBR15 BINGO (Edibles square: If you consider Red Lobster edible, I guess? Set in a restaurant.) Manny is the manager of a Red Lobster that’s being downsized. At the last lunch and dinner service, he’s convinced a few of his staff members to come in and work even though an impending snowstorm will most likely scare customers away. Whether begrudgingly, out of loyalty, or needing that last paycheck, the employees trickle in, including a few whom Manny was not able to secure jobs for at […]

…the generation that was born with planes, with the flights full of bags..

The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

by 1 Comment

CBR15 PASSPORT COMPLETED! (Stamp #15: Books from other countries) CBR15 BINGO (South America square: Colombian author, set in Colombia, Translated from Spanish) I was very excited to pick up this book when looking for a contender for the South American bingo square. My husband and I have fallen down the Narcos rabbit hole on Netflix. So, a novel about Bogatá? Mentions Escobar’s hippos? Yes, please and thank you. Antonio is a law professor living in the city he was born and raised in: Bogotá. After […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo