Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

You and me together, Nan…You are an evil genius, and I am your getaway driver.

For Never and Always by Helena Greer

by 8 Comments

Many of my favorite authors write characters I want to hang out with. Some of my favorite authors write characters I would run from if I were actually faced with them in real life. Helena Greer writes worlds I want to live in. For Never and Always is a second chance/secret marriage/marriage in trouble romance with inspiration from Rapunzel. Carrigan’s has been Hannah’s refuge and her place of power. The way her anxiety manifests, it has also been her prison. In her relationship with Levi, […]

Colonialism Lives!

The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain's Colonial Legacy by Philippe Sands

by Leave a Comment

CBR 15 Bingo – Africa: This book is about the Chagos Archipelago, which is a part of Mauritius, as well as the aftereffects of colonial legacy in Africa more generally. In the 1960s, Britain created its last colony when it detached the Chagos Islands from the fledgling nation of Mauritius, forcibly deporting the residents whose families have lived there for centuries. Philippe Sands, who was one of the lawyers representing Mauritius at the World Court, tells the story of how this came to be, and the […]

He was no longer Junior or even Santiago. He was Saint. And Lola was no longer the troublemaker from the office. She was everything he wanted and everything he eventually lost.

A Dish Best Served Hot by Natalie Caña

by Leave a Comment

I had a difficult relationship with Natalie Caña’s first book, A Proposal They Can’t Refuse. I liked so many things about it, but found the toxicity of Kamilah’s relationship with her family almost unbearable. I approached the second book in the Vega Family series with some trepidation, but A Dish Best Served Hot focused more on the community, and the Vega parents are on a cruise for most of the book. Saint Vega is the eldest of the Vega children, and a single dad to […]

The Winter of Our Discontent

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma

by Leave a Comment

In Bliss Montage, a woman and her family live in the same house as her one hundred ex-boyfriends, women trapped in a toxic friendship take a drug that makes themselves invisible, and a pregnant woman must caretake the protruding arm of her fetus as she awaits giving birth to the rest of it. The distance from everyday life that fantasy brings us can be used to magnify reality, and Ling Ma takes takes ample advantage of this in Bliss Montage, a short story collection that examines […]

50 Years of Feminism

50 Years of Ms.: The Best of the Pathfinding Magazine That Ignited a Revolution by Katherine Spillar, Eleanor Smeal, Gloria Steinem

by Leave a Comment

Seminal articles, pieces of fiction, and letters to the editor compiled from fifty years’ worth of Ms. magazine provide us with a glimpse into the last half-century of the feminist movement. For someone living in the 21st century, I have a hefty digital collection of midcentury magazines. I find it fascinating to immerse myself in the minutiae of such a different period, seeing how the world was expected to look at the time. I even like reading the advertisements! I haven’t read any old editions of […]

The night of all nights

Night of Lyons by Chasity Bowlin, Ruth A. Casie, Lynne Connolly, Sandra Sookoo, C.H. Admirand, Sara Adrien, Belle Ami, Abigail Bridges, Jenna Jaxon, Aurrora St. James

by Leave a Comment

Many a Regency hero and heroine will meet their match at the masquerade ball held tonight in the Lyon’s Den, an infamous gambling hall. A Lyon With No Name (Chasity Bowlin) This was a solid start to the collection, with the tried-and-true pairing of wickedness and innocence being refreshed by William’s awareness that he must pull his affairs together for Ellie and his estate’s sake. The Lady and the Lyon’s Scandal (Ruth A. Casie) Eva is a clever character, and I enjoyed how she and […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo