Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Pelvic floor exercises have now been added to my to-do list

This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay

by Leave a Comment

This is Going to Hurt: The Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor is important reading for any Brit who’s about to vote without bearing the future of the NHS in mind. I’ve worked in that arena for the last 15 years and the last 10 years of that has been under the banner of ‘austerity’. In that time we’ve seen services go from underfunded to seriously critical, with staff breaking more and more regularly thanks to the increased stresses and strains that go hand in […]

A First Lady to Remember

Becoming by Michelle Obama

by Leave a Comment

Michelle Obama’s Becoming was an inspirational memoir to experience. I gave the audiobook to my mom for Christmas, but ended up borrowing and reading it myself! I had very high expectations for this book. It ended up being more of an emotional journey than I imagined. The Former First Lady recounts her childhood and her family. She goes into great detail of all the sacrifices her parents made for her and her brother in Chicago. My parents are both from nearby Indiana and  Chicago is […]

Also this has the funniest use of PowerPoint I have ever seen. #CBRBingo – Rainbow Flag

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

by 12 Comments

NB: I was sent an ARC of this book but that has not affected the content of my review. This was such a fun, lovely time. I was expecting some fluff and some ‘falling in love with a priiiince’ fantasy indulgence, and some warmhearted sweetness (and there was all of that in here, as well), but I wasn’t expecting it to be so smart and practical and irreverent. I don’t often laugh out loud, but this book had me cackling at points. It just vibrated […]

Michelle Obama is my hero

Becoming by Michelle Obama

by Leave a Comment

I have loved Michelle Obama for years and Becoming just scratched this itch.  This woman! Hard working, humble, gracious, driven, smart, caring and full of so much integrity.  She almost makes me want to be American (and then I remember the health care issues and hug my Canadian passport like a security blanket).  Had Hillary Clinton won the last election I might have read Obama’s memoir in a different light- inspiring yes, but in a world where inspiring things were still relatively common.  Since the […]

“If there is one man to whom I do feel myself inferior, it is a coal-miner”

The road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell

by Leave a Comment

George Orwell is not a great writer, but he is an admirable journalist. He does not shy away from difficulty or experiencing hardship on his own body. I admire him a lot for this trait of character. In The road to Wigan Pier he was commissioned by “the left bookclub” to write about the experience of miners in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Orwell has never been anything but clearly socialist and this is a book about socialism and an attempt to argue for its benefits for […]

The most enjoyable book I’ve read so far this year

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

by Leave a Comment

#CBR11 Bingo: I Love This First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo