Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This ain’t Green Acres

In the Beginning Was the Sea by Tomas Gonzalez

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Cbr15passport books from different countries (Colombia) I learned about this short novel from a NYT “By the Book” interview with Patricia Engel. When asked about a great book that no one seems to know about, she mentioned Tomas Gonzalez’s In the Beginning Was the Sea (published in 1983, English translation in 2014 by Frank Wynne) for its shocking twists and turns. I must admit, it did not disappoint. The set up of the novel had the potential for it to be a comedy, but this […]

Judging a book by its cover worked in my favor this time

For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World by Sasha Sagan

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I picked up this book based entirely on the title and cover for the Read Harder challenge. I had no idea what to expect, but this was such a good get. I checked out the audiobook version read by the author from my local library, but I absolutely will be purchasing a physical copy for myself. I have a very storied past with religion, and my journey of deconstruction continues to this day; despite no longer being religious, I frequently find myself missing religion. More […]

Probably Should Have Just Stuck with Alice

The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux

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CBR15Passport India The Elephanta Suite is a collection of three tales, each describing the encounter of an Anglo with India.  The first story is that of a retired British couple who stay longer than they intended, the second is of a Bostonian businessman who become a Jain monk, and the third is of an American college student who falls in love with an elephant.  Unfortunately, I was not a fan of the first two.  The retired couple were self-centered, and treated the Indians with whom […]

“How terrible – to be an ordinary orphan.”

When We Were Sisters: A Novel by Fatimah Asghar

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CBR15passport new to you authors Fatimah Asghar (they/them) is a writer and co-producer of the Ms. Marvel series on Disney+ as well as creator of the Emmy-nominated web series Brown Girls. They have published poetry and a previous novel, If They Come For Us. Asghar’s parents experienced the chaos and violence of the partition of India and Pakistan and emigrated to the US, where Asghar was born.  Asghar’s parents died when Asghar was a child. While similar events occur in When We Were Sisters, this […]

Voice personal boundaries

Connor Kissed Me by Zehava

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CBR15Passport, author Sometimes a book about consent is not overly realistic. Or at least, I should say it is not like I have or other people I know have experienced. Of course, someone could be harassing you regularly, or assault you/touch/act towards you in an aggressively/uncomfortable manner, but most of the time the actions are “innocent,” but inappropriate. And Connor Kissed Me takes more of that approach. The story (coming mid-September 2023) that Zehava created is simple. Connor kisses Miriam. She does not want to […]

The book tells you why A Vaccine Is Like a Memory, but my review is just commentary

A Vaccine Is Like a Memory by Rajani Larocca

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CBR15Passport genre (science in a fictionalized format) If you are pro or anti-vaccine, that is not important as A Vaccine Is Like a Memory by Rajani Larocca is more the history of vaccines and the way they work is the secondary piece of information. Because you can agree or disagree all you want, but that does not change the fact that in the 1770’s “this happened” or in 2020 “that happened.” Sure, you then get how a vaccine is supposed to work, how it evolved […]



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