Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

North Brooklyn

Greenpoint Brooklyn's Forgotten Past by Gregory Cobb

by Leave a Comment

Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: book begins with the letter “G” I worked in Greenpoint for two years and really came to love the area. My grandmother was from east Baltimore, the same east Baltimore featured in John Waters’ Hairspray. Patterson Park, Canton, Dundalk. Those were her stomping grounds. Those neighborhoods featured a glorious mix of ethnicities, religions, languages, and cultures coming together in a dense rowhouse-packed area. She always spoke fondly of growing up there. Greenpoint gave me a similar feeling, though like most of […]

“It was like drinking the feeling of being peaceful.”

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

by Leave a Comment

Bingo: I am counting this book for the “Work” category, since the plot centers around the main character’s business venture and place of work. Viv, an orc adventurer, is ready to hang up her sword and settle into a more peaceful life. She wants to start a coffeeshop in the magical city of Thune, spreading the joy of caffeine and baked goods to all species, races, and character classes (those are the correct DnD terms, right?) Viv is stubborn and independent, but quickly learns that if […]

Life Under the Third Reich

What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany by Eric Johnson and Karl-Heinz Reuband

by Leave a Comment

Bingo: Citizen. “[T]he questions we asked of Jews about their everyday lives in Nazi Germany concentrated more on how they got along with and were treated by the non-Jewish population in their communities and on their loss of identity as former patriotic Germans in a society that no longer considered them worthy of citizenship and eventually of life itself.” I picked up Eric Johnson and Karl-Heinz Reuband’s What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany because of the growing fascism in […]

I am Jack’s waste of paper

Jack Serpent by E. A. Field

by Leave a Comment

CBR Bingo: Black I picked up Jack Serpent because I liked the cover (you can’t really tell from the photo, but it’s super shiny) and the synopsis (it sounded like a monster huntery Witcher-vibes type story). Despite nothing in the title, cover, or synopsis indicating that this was to be the case, this reads like a typical bad YA romantasy title. I don’t have anything against either of those things, and in fact, some of my favourite stories are YA and/or romantasy books, but this wasn’t […]

World of Marcus Pfister

My Friend the Paintbrush: The Colorful World of Marcus Pfister by Marcus Pfister

by Leave a Comment

Cbr17bingo Arts (paintbrushes and an artist are the theme) When I saw the title (via an online reader copy) My Friend the Paintbrush: The Colorful World of Marcus Pfister by Marcus Pfister and translated by David Henry Wilson, I figured it might be cute, but not overwhelmingly WOW. I did see it was due at the end of March/early April 2026 but still thought I’d read it “now” instead of putting it on my TBR list. And I am glad I did. While it might […]

Stitch Head was the first creation. But not the last.

Stitch Head: The Graphic Novel by Guy Bass and Pete Williamson

by Leave a Comment

Cbr17bingo Favorite (in a favorite genre) Stitch Head: The Graphic Novel by Guy Bass and Pete Williamson is a cute retelling of the Frankenstein monster story with modern twists. Plus it includes the ideas of friendship and how they change and grow. While I am not in the BEST EVER category for this title, there was a coziness to it that I enjoyed, plus the humor was quirky and not too young or “stereotypical” (though there is some of that, too). Sometimes things are a […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo