Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A multi-generational exploration of Black experience from the early days of the slave trade through modern day.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

by Leave a Comment

CBR 15 Bingo: Africa – The book begins, ends, and half of it takes place in Africa. Yaa Gyasi begins Homegoing with a pair of sisters (Effia Otcher and Esi Asare) separated at birth at the height of the African slave trade.  One sister, Effia, is raised and married off to a white Englishman on the Gold Coast.  The other sister, Esi, stays in a tribal African village.  The story covers seven generations. Each chapter is a new person advancing down the timeline and alternates between […]

August 2023 Leftovers

Red Cat by Peter Spiegelman

You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy

Gangland by Chuck Hogan

Death and the Good Life by Richard Hugo

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexa Coe

Britt-Marie Was Here by Frederik Backman

Occupied City by David Peace

Sleepless City by Reed Farrel Coleman

Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum

Run Time by Cathy Ryan Howard

Loyalty by Lisa Scottoline

None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

The Club by Ellery Lloyd

Not in Bronxville by Rita K. Farrelly

by Leave a Comment

Unquestionably the worst month in the calendar. Red Cat*** It’s not the writer’s fault that I just finished Robert Kolker’s excellent Lost Girls in light of the apprehension of the man they think is the Gilgo Beach murderer. But my threshold for murdered sex workers was low going into this. I only finished it because it filled a specific square for my library summer reading game. It’s not bad; the mystery is done well but it doesn’t stand out as far as the rest of […]

And One for the Air

One For Our Baby by John Sandrolini

by Leave a Comment

Read as part of CBR15Bingo: take flight. The main character in this book is a pilot and there are many scenes of him flying people in the air.  This is not a serious book so if you’re willing to go along with the flow (or the flight, haha), you might enjoy it like I did. If not, give it a hard pass. The first 50% or so of this read like a script from a lost 50s crime film starring Frank Sinatra. John Sandrolini has […]

There is the crime and there is the silence.

The Guest Book by Sarah Blake

by Leave a Comment

CBR15 BINGO (You Are Here square: Parts of the book take place in coastal Maine and I read the book while I was visiting the area.) I can fall into a good story fairly easily, but there is something to be said about reading a book in its actual setting. A little sea air and waves crashing against rocky cliffs? Summer reading heaven. This novel spans three generations of the Miltons, an “old money” family in New York who went on to build an empire […]

Smell the Flowers

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

by Leave a Comment

Read as part of CBR15Bingo: dwelling. The story is titled Lavender House and is mostly set in the titular location.  I’m going to give this book four stars against my better judgment. It was not a four star read. Let me explain. For like 70-80% of these ratings, I take them seriously. I really do want people to know how I feel if they are considering whether or not to pick something up. Reading is awesome and we only have so much time in this life. This […]

Cozy mystery set in the 1920s with an agoraphobic heroine and a tiny dog named Presley.

The Socialite's Guide to Murder (Pinnacle Hotel Mysteries, #1) by S.K. Golden

by Leave a Comment

I liked this, but not enough to buy the second book. I will be librarying it, thank you, mostly because there are a couple of elements I’m curious to see how they play out. It’s really a classic case of had a good time while reading it, but wouldn’t be upset if I couldn’t ever read another in the series. This takes place in 1958 in NYC at the fictional Pinnacle Hotel, where our main character Evelyn has lived since the age of six, when […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo