Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

CBR15 Bingo: On the Road

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

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4.5 stars CBR15 Bingo: On the Road On a moon, (that seems quite like Earth in many respects) called Panga, people live peacefully together in harmonious small communities. There are remnants of a previous industrial age, and it’s suggested that there was a near apocalypse way back when, but humanity improved and started thinking about what was better for their environment, possibly helped by the exodus of their robots. At some point, in the distant past, many generations ago, the robots that had been working […]

“What if it’s enough to just be…Us.”

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

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The previous book in the Monk and Robot series by Becky Chambers was one of the first books I read and reviewed in 2023, and I adored it. I immediately put a hold on the second (and so far, last) book in the series, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. I eagerly waited for it to make it through my queue, fully confident that I would love it based on my feelings for the first book as well as my experiences with Chambers’ Wayfarers series.  After […]

“And to that end, welcome comfort, for without it, you cannot stay strong.” Bingo #4

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

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CBR14Bingo: “Dough” – There is no money in Panga.  Instead there is an exchange system of ‘pebs’ (digital pebbles) to “acknowledge someone’s labor and thank them for what they bring to the community”. They were running up against a wall, and it didn’t matter whether they understood where the wall had come from, or what it was made of.  The only way to get through it was to stop trying, for a while.  …  They would focus on Mosscap and let the remainder wait. … […]

“You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. … You are allowed to just live.” – Bingo #3!

A Psalm for the Wild-built by Becky Chambers

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CBR14 Bingo: “Cozy” – This book is like a warm, reassuring hug. I first read A Psalm for the Wild-Built in December 2021.  This is a reread in preparation for A Prayer for the Crown-Shy.  The first time reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built, I was blown away.  Chamber’s evocative writing, meditations on purpose and our place within the natural world, along with the depictions of the soothing powers of tea spoke directly to me.  A Psalm for the Wild-Built was just as affective the second time as […]

A Poem and Prayer and some F@cks

A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers

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Bingo 22: Verse I think I’ve found my preferred Becky Chambers series; the two Monk & Robot books I’ve read so far are philosophical, gentle reads that are still interesting with character and a little plot. The second one though is suitable for a ‘poetic’ category given that it opens with a poem and has a rhythm to it both in terms of the prose and the general story. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy has a really good opening; first the prayer itself that introduces […]

“Finding the ocean was as simple a matter as letting a river lead you in the direction it wanted to go most.”

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

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This one didn’t make me cry nearly as much as its predecessor, Psalm for the Wild-Built, but that shouldn’t make you think that it didn’t have an emotional impact, it did make me tear up on more than one occasion. Because this novella is a meditation on what we call the human condition. It is also a look at how we can live if society puts happiness and contentment first. If we don’t compete but instead cooperate. But its also the kind of novella that […]



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