Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Re-Writes Your Story?

Long Live Evil: Time of Iron Book One by Sarah Rees Brennan

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Cbr17bingo Border — the main character literally crosses a border between reality and fiction, and straddles the border between good and evil; the kingdom in the story is bordered by the Dread Ravine, which is full of the undead. This book is one of the most bonkers, crazy, fun stories I’ve read in a long time, and I thank Dome’loki for the review that turned me on to it. I think we’re all familiar with time travel stories, where a character is sent back in […]

Nothing like the TV series, and that’s a good thing

The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton

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Cbr17bingo “B” I loves me some Edith Wharton. Wharton wrote what she knew: late 19th/early 20th century old New York society (think “The Gilded Age”) and its dark underbelly. Wharton grew up amongst the New York elite, and in novels like The Age of Innocence, The Custom of the Country and House of Mirth, she devastates readers with stories of stifling social mores, the struggle of “new money” families to break into elite “old money” circles, and the terrible repercussions for women dependent on men […]

“Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.”

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

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Cbr17bingo School This short novel is considered Muriel Spark’s best work. Set in a girls’ school in Edinburgh in the 1930s, it tells the story of a group of school girls and their influential, charismatic teacher Miss Jean Brodie. “The Brodie Set,” as the girls and their teacher are known, attract envy and suspicion from both students and staff at Marcia Blaine school as Miss Brodie flouts convention and invites her young students into confidences that are deeply inappropriate. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie […]

There’s something about Mary

Allegedly: A Novel by Tiffany D. Jackson

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Cbr17bingo White (bingo #1) I’ve previously read and favorably reviewed two of Tiffany D. Jackson’s novels: Monday’s Not Coming and Grown. Jackson is an outstanding YA novelist, taking on challenging topics such as murder, sexual predation and mental illness. Her novels feature black girls who are sexualized and viewed as adults even though they are children. Allegedly, Jackson’s 2017 debut novel, involves all of the above: a black girl accused of murdering a white baby, her abuse while incarcerated, teenaged pregnancy, and lots of undiagnosed […]

“The past is the future”

Obasan by Joy Kogawa

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Cbr17bingo citizen Over the years, I have read a number of books that have dealt with the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy and Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic and When the Emperor Was Divine were all written from personal, family experiences of that shameful chapter in US history that was left out of history books when I was in school (and is probably being removed from them now). I had never heard of Joy […]

It’s not good but it has good intentions

The Maid: A Novel by Nita Prose

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Cbr17bingo Work The Maid is a mystery that features a main character named Molly Gray who is a maid at the swanky Regency Grand Hotel and who is on the autism spectrum, even though author Nita Prose never tells us so outright. Molly is socially awkward and has difficulty reading social cues. She takes things very literally, adheres strictly to her schedule, and is a rule follower. In the past, her Gran, who raised her, helped Molly interpret the puzzling statements and actions of the […]



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