Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Elwood received the best gift of his life on Christmas Day 1962, even if the ideas it put in his head were his undoing.”

The Nickel Boys: A Novel by Colson Whitehead

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Cbr12bingo Cannonballer Says, BINGO x2: vertical Red to Money, horizontal Cannonballer Says to Adaptation For the second year in a row, my Cannonballer Says square is filled with a book reviewed by TeresaElectro! Last year it was Rebecca Roanhorse’s excellent Trail of Lightning. This year it’s Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize winning The Nickel Boys. Four years ago I reviewed Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, which was an amazing tour de force dealing with American history and American racism. The Nickel Boys is another clear-eyed, no-punches-held look […]

“At the barn fire of insanity”

The Luckiest Guy Alive by John Cooper Clarke

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Cbr12bingo Repeat (for Pandemic) BINGO x2: vertical Uncannon to Repeat, horizontal Money to Violet Over the past seven months of pandemic quarantining, my husband and I have done a lot of mindless TV/video watching, and thanks to the smart TV, we aren’t just limited to regular TV fare but can watch anything that’s on the internet on our big screen. As a result, we seem to have subscribed to, and hence watch, more YouTube channels than anything else. We are big fans of British comedian […]

“People can be unpredictable in their cruelty.”

Real Life: A Novel by Brandon Taylor

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Cbr12bingo Debut BINGO diagonal, Money to Music Brandon Taylor’s debut novel Real Life has been nominated for a Booker Prize. Warning: contains scenes of violence, rape, abuse Real Life is the excellent debut novel from Brandon Taylor, nominated for the 2020 Booker Prize. Taylor shows the effect of memory, the past and racism on one man’s life. The setting is a mid-western university at the end of summer, and the protagonist Wallace is a graduate student who is gay and Black. The action takes place over […]

Fanfic — Classics Edition

The Song of Achilles: A Novel by Madeline Miller

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Cbr12bingo Gateway BINGO horizontal (Gateway to Shelfie) I first read The Song of Achilles for CBR4, and for me, it is the gateway to a genre that I will call “reimagined classics” or perhaps “fanfic: classics edition.” This is the first book I can remember reading that is based on a classic story, in this case The Iliad, expanding on a part of it and telling it from the perspective of a minor character. Re-imagined classics allow authors to go into more detail on aspects […]

An argument for the arts

The Night Circus: A Novel by Erin Morgenstern

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Cbr12bingo I wish… Bingo (vertical from Roaring ‘20s) When I chose to read The Night Circus, I had planned to use it for the “Cannonballer Says” bingo square. It has been a very popular book among Cannonballers since its release in 2011, but as I got pulled into the story, I found that this is definitely an “I wish” book. Who wouldn’t want to visit le Cirque des Reves? The sights, the sounds, the smells and the fantastical exhibitions have drawn fans from around the […]

Get your priorities straight!

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

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Cbr12bingo Happy This short book could count as a “how-to” as well as a “happy” category book. The title might lead the reader to think it’s a funny send-up of self-help books, and while it is frequently funny, it is actually a very helpful discussion about finding the right values to guide you in life. It’s about prioritizing and recognizing that a good life is not an easy one and that you shouldn’t strive for easy. This is really a great book to be reading […]



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