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

by Leave a Comment

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 […]

The past is a black hole, cut into the present day like a wound, and if you come too close, you can get sucked in.

Severance by Ling Ma

by Leave a Comment

Severance is a beautiful book with a lovely pink cover and a mysterious title. It opens and unfolds slowly as you read and then it just stops. It jumps backwards and forwards in time in a slow, meandering pace that feels like it ultimately amounts to nothing. We begin by meeting Candace in a post-apocalyptic world where most of the population has succumbed to Shen fever. Candace has joined a small band of survivors, but she spends most of her time reminiscing about the time […]

The issue has always been land

The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King

by Leave a Comment

Thomas King is a dual American-Canadian citizen of mixed heritage (Wikipedia lists Cherokee, German and Greek backgrounds), and he identifies strongly with his Cherokee heritage.  He is also quite the storyteller, in the best possible way. King starts his “account” of North American history by refusing to label it as a history- noting, in fact that all histories are “stories we tell about the past”.  He provides a sweeping overview of Indian-White relations in the US and Canada, in more or less chronological (though expressly […]

There’s an Important Story and Message Hidden Somewhere in This Thing

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

by Leave a Comment

Bingo Square: Own Voices I’d been debating between this and Everything I Never Told You for this category but since I had just read The Bride Test, which was about an Vietnamese-American family and am thinking about reading a book about a Chinese family for my “Back to School” read, I figured I should diversify instead of reading about a Chinese-American family for this.  Imbolo Mbue is originally from Cameroon and has lived in the United States for ten years, and her novel follows a […]

CBRBingo – Own Voices. If you know anyone with the rally cry of “send her back” give them this book.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

by Leave a Comment

CBR Bingo – Own Voices This is my second read of Mohsin Hamid, having read “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” last year. He was not on my radar except for the intentional choice to read outside of my standard zone, by way of fighting ignorance (looking at you, Drumpf) with education. I came across an article via lithub (http://lithub.com/10-contemporary-nov…) that gave 10 contemporary books to read, and a friend and I decided to tackle “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.” It was interesting, surprising, heartfelt, and disheartening. It put a […]

A “Reluctant” Beginning

A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole

by Leave a Comment

                Welcome to Bingo, where I finally start playing catch up on my stack of unreviewed books I’ve read this year! For Bingo counting purposes, they count as follows: A Princess in Theory is Far and Away. Not only does Prince Thabiso rule the fictional African nation of Thesolo, but the back third of the book requires our heroine, Naledi, to follow him there. Once Ghosted, Twice Shy is Own Voices. Alyssa Cole is a brilliant black woman […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo