Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Bloody tango steps in Sweden

The Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell

by Leave a Comment

This is the fave thriller of a friend of mine, I found it on one of the free bookshelves around town and gave it a try. I read quite a few of the Wallander cases as a teen, but I mostly only remember the gory violence and not much else. While not a Wallander case, this definitely doesn’t disappoint either when it comes to cruel ways to die. A former police man is found flogged to death in his house somewhere in the Swedish boondocks, […]

World War II meets King Arthur’s Court

The Metropolitans by Carol Goodman

by 1 Comment

Set in WWII New York, four kids find themselves at the MET on a cold Sunday afternoon, each dealing with a hand far heavier than any teen should be dealt. Walt was sent to live with family in the US to keep out of Hitler’s grasp. Kiko is a young Chinese girl who looks too much like the enemy to ever be trusted. Madge has been separated from her siblings as a result of her father’s overwhelming grief over her mother’s passing and all she […]

Unaccompanied Minors, side of Nazis

The Adventurous Four by Enid Blyton

by 1 Comment

Set in an unnamed fishing village off the north east coast of Scotland, Blyton’s book follows three siblings, Tom and his younger twin sisters Jill and Mary, who are on late summer holidays with their parents.  Their older friend, Andy, is the son of a local fisherman, and the four of them are planning a day trip with Andy’s father’s boat, lent with permission.  On their day outing, a storm sweeps the boat off course, and the four children are shipwrecked on a small island […]

In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

by 2 Comments

This is it. The last review of my cannonball! And what a book I have chosen to go out on. A friend of mine, seeing on Goodreads that I was edging toward my reading goal for the year, reached out to me with some graphic novel suggestions that I could tackle quickly to get across the finish line. It was great to have her support, and her endorsement that graphic novels “do count” which, of course they do! One of her suggestions was the graphic […]

The Ghosts of Anti-Semitism Haunt Holland Through Soccer

by 2 Comments

Read for Cannonball Run Bingo. Category: White Whale. The World Cup was on this past summer and anytime I see it, I’m inclined to read more books about soccer. I’m a big sports fan but my interest in soccer really only begun about 12 years ago when, bored out of my mind for the summer of 2006, I watched the World Cup fastidiously. Soccer is now perhaps my fourth favorite sport after baseball, football, and basketball and I’m wearing a New York City FC shirt […]

Throwing a kitten out a window was only a warning shot.

by 2 Comments

Halfway through Moonglow, I caught myself with my hand over my mouth, trying to keep my breath inside my body because the prose was so exceptionally beautiful. I had my worries before reading this book. I have only recently discovered Chabon, and have only otherwise read The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, which was so stunning that it made me want to punch something. There is a lot of hype surrounding Moonglow, and even I only got it by accident from the library on a strict, one […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo