Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I hope we don’t wait 7 years for a Book 3

My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book 2 by Emil Ferris

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Cbr16bingo Pride (Emil Ferris is bisexual and several of her characters are LGBTQIA2S+) Book 2 of My Favorite Thing is Monsters (MFTIM) finally dropped this year, 7 years after Emil Ferris’ outstanding and much acclaimed debut graphic novel. As ever the art is stunning — colorful ballpoint pen on lined notebook paper with amazing detail and homages to horror comics on every page. MFTIM is 10-year-old Karen Reyes’ story of events from spring and summer of 1968 in Chicago. It’s the story of her family’s […]

A re-read that holds up

My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book 1 by Emil Ferris

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Cbr16bingo Dreams graphic novel features dream sequences, nightmarish horrors and main character’s dream is to become a monster (werewolf) I reviewed this graphic novel for CBR9 and loved it. The second volume has only just dropped this year and a re-read was needed as I’d forgotten most of the plot over 7 years. This is a story of monsters and horrors, but of course the scariest things are not supernatural but very real and human. Through gorgeous detailed art and skillful storytelling, Emil Ferris creates […]

Dinner and a Show is more about the show and getting your own dinner

Bollywood Kitchen by Sri Rao

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Bingo 8: Bollywood Book title: Bollywood Kitchen. Explanation for square done, except to point out that this book is not a book about food in Bollywood movies, it’s a book about food inspired by how the author remembers or perceives a handful of contemporary Bollywood films. So that means things like a family drama film paired with a Thanksgiving tinged family dinner (spiced roast chicken, sweet/savory pumpkin, and cashew fried rice); or the Shakespeare adaptation of Hamlet paired with butternut squash soup and Himalayan shepherds […]

DIY Bubbles

Bubble Tea: 50 fun recipes for boba and beyond by Livia Abraham

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Bingo 7: Bananas Bananas are among other things kind of whimsical, definitely sweet, and have a tendency to overshadow anything they are put with. These are qualities also shared by bubble tea, and so for this square I have Bubble Tea: 50 fun recipes for boba and beyond. I don’t know why there hasn’t been a Despicable Me scene with the Minions getting bubble tea; I can totally picture that. Bananas are also associated (at least in my mind, along with apples) school lunches (and […]

The Opposite of Euphoria

Negative Space by B.R. Yeager

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Read as part of CBR 16 Bingo: dreams. One of the main characters consistently has dreams that impact the plot of the story. CN: This book has many references to suicide, sometimes graphically. I won’t go into detail here but it’s impossible to review without mentioning it. If that’s something that makes you uncomfortable, sit this one out. Like many a child of the 80s and 90s, I’m a product of DARE’s Just Say No Culture. I never did drugs, was terrified of them as […]

Nowhere had she encountered as many puppeteers as in Hollywood

Table for Two by Amor Towles

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CBR16 BINGO: Golden, because the novella Eve in Hollywood takes place during the Golden Age of Hollywood BINGO: Part 1, Part 2, Dreams, Golden, Scandal I was so taken with A Gentleman in Moscow that the gathering up and devouring of more of Amor Towles’s works became inevitable. While not quite reaching the same level of charm as the aforementioned tale of a Russian aristocrat, Table for Two is a solid collection of short narratives that mingle humor, tragedy, and resilience. Table for Two feels like […]



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