Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Missing you is profoundly inconvenient, I’ll have you know. I have things to do and places to be, and all the while I’ll feel like I’ve mislaid a piece of my soul and I won’t get it back until I see you again. That can’t be normal.”

The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian

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I should have read this one much closer to the previous two in the series, The Soldier’s Scoundrel and The Lawrence Brown Affair because so many of our previous characters reappear here and are woven into the plot. As a reader you can tell that Sebastian was getting more comfortable in her writing, overall, this book is stronger than the previous two, even if Sebastian shortchanges the plot a smidge in the final third. I continue to really like how Cat Sebastian builds her stories: […]

“Because, my girl you are sacred, valuable, indispensable, and irreplaceable”

#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women by Lisa Charleyboy, Mary Beth Leatherdale (editors)

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I keep doing reading challenges for a couple reasons, but one of them is that it tends to point out areas that my reading habits need to expand. This year the Read Harder Challenge includes tasks for both YA Non-fiction and to read a book in any genre by a Native, First Nations, or Indigenous author. I’ve already read one YA Non-fiction this year, but while I was hunting up titles I came across #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women edited by Lisa Charleyboy and […]

Cows On Strike

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, Betsy Lewin (Illustrator)

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In my time with CBR I have reviewed very few children’s books. Mostly its because I don’t have many kids to read to so my exposure to and enjoyment of children’s books is limited. But I do have a wonderful coworker who read Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type to her own kids a few years ago. When we were having lunch together shortly thereafter she told me about it and when I expressed delight at its conceit she bought me my own copy for […]

“It amazed me how quickly a lie loses its power in the face of truth.”

In Order to Live: a North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park, Maryanne Vollers

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First, I feel a little bad rating In Order to Live: a North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom three stars. Park’s life story to the point of her writing this book, just 21 years, is full of the sort of deprivations, suffering, drive to survive, and eventually hope that make you want to love the work. Yeonmi Park’s life deserves notice and her book deserves to be read. Unfortunately for me, it felt more like homework than a captivating read. Second, there are some books […]

“There isn’t ever going to be an end,” she said. “The point is that people have to continue always speaking up. And not being afraid.”

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story that Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey

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I was telling a friend when I sat down to write this review that I was having a tough time finding my way in. When I reviewed Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill, I was able to talk about him as part of the review, since he put himself on the page as part of the writing, and that was my way in to getting my thoughts down. That book was about both the harassment and abuse of women by men in power and the efforts […]

Book Club Discussion Post: Station Eleven Revisited

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Welcome to our first #CannonBookClub of 2020 – a return trip to Station Eleven. When MsWas and I discussed revisiting our first book club book six months ago we couldn’t have known what the state of the world would be when we got to March. COVID-19 is very different than the Georgian Flu, but it certainly gave us a new lens through which to view Emily St. John Mandel’s book. On to the boilerplate: ground rules remain the same as they always have. For those […]



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