Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Hurricanes Can Be Inside, Just as Much as Outside

Hurricane Season by Nicole Melleby

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I always have a little trepidation reviewing a book written by someone I know in a professional capacity, so as much as I’ve been excited to read Hurricane Season since finding out it was being published last year, I was also really worried about giving it an honest review. But not only can I say that I enjoyed it, but it was so good it made me cry the good tears and I want to ship a copy to literally every person I know.  I’m […]

“Oh, every person is a book with chapters. Some are glorious and some are dark and ugly. Every person survives something.”

A Heart in a Body in the World by Caletti, Deb

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After an unnerving encounter in a local fast-food chain, Annabelle runs. She runs and decides she can’t stop anytime soon. She isn’t prepared for a cross-country run, but she can’t bear to turn back to her hometown and school where she is haunted by flashbacks of The Taker, and what he took. Her mother is appalled, with graduation coming and concern that Annabelle isn’t thinking rationally. But her little brother, her friends, and her grandfather seem to understand that running to Washington DC is something […]

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine – Hard to pigeonhole, great to read.

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

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Reese Witherspoon’s book club has been on my periphery, it’s been great seeing a beloved actress that I grew up on (I mean…Man in the Moon? Fear? Formative) become such a literary champion and icon.  That said, I enjoy being a contrarian so I’m more likely to eschew something everyone likes then subscribe to it, even though Reese is obviously a goddess, I was hesitant to go all in on her book club recommendations. But after this one, which was her first ever back in […]

“It’s amazing how few words a person can get by with.”

After Zero by Christina Collins

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Elise grew up as the home-schooled daughter of a single mother and has recently transitioned to public school for her eighth grade year. Theirs is a solitary existence – her mother rarely leaves the house, working as a professor for online math classes, struggling with bouts of depression since the death of her husband on the day of Elise’s birth. Elise deals with the solitude, and these days it has actually been helpful: for quickly after starting the school year, Elise made it a goal […]

“The world in my head has been far more real than the one outside”

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

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It’s a real shame I’ve been so terrible about reviewing because there’s been some serious gems that I’ve read this year… and I would have ended 2018 without a single review for CBR10. Life has been very full, and I could have certainly leaned on that as an excuse. But a very kind message from Mswas convinced me to at least put some effort into reviewing the latest book I finished this week. I’ve been excited to read Akwaeke Emezi’s debut novel Freshwater months before I finally […]

The Oxford English Dictionary Was Basically Wikipedia

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Fans of Comedy Central’s tv show “Drunk History” may be familiar with the story of Dr. William Minor: The Civil War doctor showed signs of struggling with mental health during and after the war (how could one not), and moved to London for a fresh start. Unfortunately, Dr. Minor suffered from the beliefs that all kinds of people were out to get him, and those beliefs led him to shoot an innocent stranger in cold blood. The American was institutionalized.  Concurrently, Professor James Murray was […]



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