Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I go to the grave shared by my father and Jimmy. The question I get most, the one I hate, is why I went into his room. And why I helped people. Again and again, ‘Why did you do it? How?’ The answer is, How could I not?” (Bingo#1)

All the Young Men: a memoir of love, AIDS, and chosen family in the American South by Ruth Coker Burks, Kevin Carr O'Leary

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I read a lot of memoirs; I love listening to someone tell me their story. All the Young Men tells Ruth Coker Burks’ story as a young single mother in Hot Springs, Arkansas, who finds herself driven to the forefront of the AIDS crisis and becoming an activist in the fight against AIDS. Coker Burks story starts in the way that I think many of us hope we would respond – while visiting her friend recovering from cancer surgery, she notices nurses drawing straws to […]

a mermaid’s tail made of donkey skin (a dual cbr13bingo and #cannonbookclub adventure!)

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

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well, not exactly. What we have here are two retellings of classic fairy tales: Charles Perrault’s deeply upsetting Donkeyskin (recently reviewed by our very own BlackRaven) and Hans Christian Andersen’s  also unsettling The Little Mermaid. Both of these entries are picks for our upcoming #cannonbookclub event- and I’ll be discussing Deerskin further during our Zoom- but in the meantime, let these two help you choose your pick(s)! Also- both of these tales of girls on the cusp of womanhood have been reclaimed and retold by women. […]

A House in Pieces

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

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While a classic, I’ve never gotten around to reading The House on Mango Street, but my mentor wants to add it to our class reading list and has asked me to teach it. I blew through it in about six hours, and I don’t know why I’ve avoided this book for such a long time. Like many classics, I’d heard the title bandied about in conversation, but never any details about the plot, and my idea of what this books was about (a house in a […]

The entire series is free, as long as you already have Audible Plus

How to Date Your Dragon by Molly Harper

Love and Other Wild Things by Molly Harper

Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues by Molly Harper

Selkies are a Girl's Best Friend by Molly Harper

Always Be My Banshee by Molly Harper

One Fine Fae by Molly Harper

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CBR13 Bingo: Home (so many of the various characters come from very unstable family backgrounds and are only too happy to settle in Mystic Bayou, having finally find somewhere they can properly call home) This is going to be a bulk review for the first six stories (four novels, two novellas) in the Mystic Bayou paranormal romance series by Molly Harper. I listened to all the books in audio, as they are available as part of the Audible Plus catalogue. Considering that I already pay […]

Enjoyed reading this one!

Who's that Earl by Susanna Craig

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Home: while I’m not saying it’s a epic saga about the journey to find a place to call home, whether Jane will finally get to call a place home (or if Thomas will come and take Dunnock away from her) is a main plot point! Based on a rec from llamareadsbooks for the second in the series! So I will say that I enjoyed this and stayed in bed one morning in lieu of going to work to read it. It’s the first book in […]

Dimestore – Lee Smith (2016)

Dimestore by Lee Smith

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CBR13Bingo – Home A short memoir that’s not exactly a memoir. Instead, this short book by Lee Smith is a series of topical essays about her memoir. They tie together in the sense of their being all part of her life, but the individual parts are much more interesting than the whole. They don’t hang together, but treated separately they’re wonderful. If you don’t know Lee Smith, you should! She’s from a small town in the far western mountains of Virginia. From where I lived, […]



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