Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Dystopia Now

Radicalized by Cory Doctorow

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CBR Bingo: White I picked up Radicalized a short time after it was published in 2019, fully intending to read it, but for various reasons never got around to it. I’ve read some of Cory Doctorow’s work before, both full length novels and shorter essays. I think he usually has really good ideas, but these don’t always translate well into stories, where his characters often feel like they are lecturing the reader. Radicalized isn’t a novel, but a collection of four short stories (I think? I’m […]

A firestorm of a story!

The Story of my Anger by Jasminne Mendez

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The Story of my Anger counts for the “school” square on CBR17 Bingo. I was immediately drawn to The Story of My Anger because Yuli’s pose on the cover is so defiant and powerful, and I knew I wanted to read her story. Told in verse, this book follows Yuli and her group of friends who are trying to prevent the books that have allowed them to be seen in curriculum from being banned. Especially in today’s sociopolitical landscape and how many books are being […]

Interesting elements but a little disappointing

Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto

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Cbr17bingo “I” Published in Japan in 1961, Inspector Imanishi Investigates opens with the battered, bloodied body of an unidentified 50-year-old man found on the train tracks in Tokyo. Those who had seen him earlier in the evening with another younger man indicated that both men spoke with an unusual Japanese accent. As Inspector Imanishi investigates, more unusual deaths follow amongst the very people he wanted to question. While the coroner rules those deaths natural or simply unfortunate, they seem suspicious to Imanishi. As the months […]

“Its so easy, isn’t it, to decide the people you’re fighting aren’t really human.”

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

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I am counting this book for the Citizen category in the CBR17 Bingo Reading Challenge. The central antagonist of this novel is an empire known as the Radch. The inhabitants of the Radch are known as Radchaii, which translates to either “civilized” or “citizen.” The Radch is benevolent and giving to its citizens, but brutal and violent to outsiders. One of the central themes of the books centers on how people justify atrocities by dehumanizing those they hurt, and how the concept of “citizens” or “civilized […]

Plot Twist

Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong

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CRB Bingo Square “I”. When you know a book has a big huge twist in it, do you try to figure out what it is? I had read that there’s a big twist at the end of Chloe Gong’s Immortal Longings, and even though the book did a good job of setting it up, I was very surprised. So then I thought about what kind of reader I am in general, and I would say I tend to just read and let the plot wash […]

CBR17 Book Bingo Reading Challenge Begins

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This reading challenge runs the gamut from as basic BINGO as you can get to engaging with some important concepts – migration, citizenship, and culture. As always, your time is precious, so please pick books you will enjoy or appreciate. The check-ins will return to being monthly, starting Tuesday August 5. but if you have a question, please don’t hesitate to comment here, or use the contact form. As always, a huge thanks to yesknopemaybe for creating the best bingo cards on the internet. Official […]



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