Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A book to read in bed

Cockroach and Other Stories by Jane Cornes Maclean

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Bingo:  You are here – the author lives in my city and my friend circle.  Jane calls this collection of short stories ficto-memoir, created by slicing off little pieces of her life and frying them up in the spice of fiction to make something delicious.   Within the span of twenty-one tales, some don’t stray far from the woman I know, an Englishwoman who has lived in Australia most of her life, a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, who looks at life with insight, […]

Americana Sports

Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association by Terry Pluto

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Read as part of CBR15Bingo: North America. The story of the American Basketball Association takes place exclusively in the United States and the organization has the word “American” in it. The other day, I was at a basketball team store when I saw a New York Nets hat for sale. I’ve tried really hard not to purchase clothes and hats these days but I just couldn’t help myself. It was beautiful, with the old school Nets logo. It represented everything good about the old American […]

“I may of use to you yet, my dear dragon”

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

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4.5 stars CBR15 Bingo: History (set in an alternate history, in the Victorian era) 15-word review: Introverted lady scholar goes to fictional Iceland to research faeries, followed by her handsome colleague. Official book description (because I finished this at the start of May): Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is […]

CBR 15 Bingo – Relation”ship”

Circe by Madeline Miller

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I was very late to the party on this one, but I’m sure glad I was invited. I heard how good this book was for a few years, but for one reason or another, I never got around to it. I did read The Song of Achilles last year and loved it, but I didn’t want to dive into Circe immediately afterwards. Achilles is HEARTBREAKING and I needed a breather. When I was a kid, I was OBSESSED with Greek Mythology, so the story of […]

Maybe not all things need to be published

Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman by Alan Rickman

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Bingo square: You Are Here (Library book) Alan Rickman was a wonderful actor, in some of my favourite films. Die Hard, of course, his first film role. But also Galaxy Quest, Sense & Sensibility. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He kept diaries for many years, and after his death from pancreatic cancer in 2016, they were published. They are often short entries, notes on where he is, what he’s doing, who he’s with. Often on a plane, battling jetlag, on to the next piece of […]

I Want to go Outside

Wool by Hugh Howey

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Bingo square: Dwelling At some point in the future, humanity has been doomed and the last remnants of it live below ground in the silo. 144 floors, ranging from up top, through the mids, to the down deep. No one goes outside. And if you ask, you get your wish but can never come back. It’s a death sentence, as the outside is toxic. The small view the inhabitants of the silo can see through a view screen becomes corroded over time, and those who […]



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