Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

When you’re Evil (ish) and make a mean latte

teenagers, self-esteem, good and evil, fame villains, by Kennedy Tarrell

by Leave a Comment

When I saw the cover of Evil-ish by Kennedy Tarrell I figured it would be in the fantasy genre and I hoped for a graphic novel. The graphic novel hinting covers have fooled me often of late so I was hoping I was not going to be disappointed and instead of a good, old fashioned graphic novel, I would find myself reading a (gasp! clutching pearls) a NOVEL! Actually, that hyperbole works well for this cute, fun, and cozy familiar story. Our main character is […]

A Feminist serial killer romp

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

by Leave a Comment

Some people are offended by the idea of a woman taking the law into her own hands and murdering rapists. I am not one of those people, especially in this nearly Handmaid’s Tale existence we’re currently living in. Sorry not sorry. Our main characters are Scarlett Clark and Carly Schiller. One is the aforementioned murderess (and English professor), and the other is a kinda scared college student. We travel between these two ladies stories throughout the book. They both are associated with Gorman University. That’s […]

Tana French is back with a vengeance and a penchant for Wild West-isms, and I am HERE. FOR. IT. 

The Searcher by Tana French

by 2 Comments

This is a safe review; I’ll give you no spoilers and I’ll give you no major plot points- but I will let you know that no, we have not returned to the Dublin Murder Squad. While I found the departure disappointing in The Witch Elm, I found it thrilling here; the idyllic landscape filled with the insidious creep of small town communities. While we have not returned to the Murder Squad, we have returned to having a protagonist on the searching side of the law- and […]

A courtroom drama come to life.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

by Leave a Comment

After hearing Stevenson speak at the Global Leadership Summit and being moved to tears, I knew I needed to pick up his book, and it does not disappoint. Stevenson starts by telling his own story of becoming a lawyer and the events that prompted him to found the Equal Justice Initiative – an organization that provides legal counsel and advocates for those living on society’s margins, the poor, the wrongly convicted, and women & children who didn’t necessarily deserve the convictions they received. He paints […]

When the illustrations for the article make you decide you have to read the book.

by 1 Comment

Sometime in 2016 I found a list of best long-form reporting stories of the past year. Deep into the list, I clicked on this story from ProPublica and The Marshall Project, about a young woman who reported being repeatedly raped over many hours by a masked man, in her apartment, and the nightmare scenario which unfolded as she was accused of making a false report, then arrested and forced to go before a judge to plead guilty for her “crime.” The story was embedded into my memory for […]

A great primer in how both higher education and the justice system victimise women a second time in cases of rape and assault

by 1 Comment

I finally picked up Missoula just as the #metoo revelations started to pick up steam. As someone who’s had a lifetime full of #metoo moments, I was both eager and hesitant to dive into this read about multiple rape accusations in the college town of Missoula, Montana (home of the University of Montana Grizzlies!), and the school, and/or police investigations, (or lack thereof) and trials, (or lack thereof) which resulted from those accusations. This is not a good choice for the faint-hearted, or anyone who has been […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo