Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Just breathe, Juliet, just breathe

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

by Leave a Comment

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera has been on my radar for awhile now. However, it always seemed daunting. Perhaps it was the subject, perhaps the length of the book itself or just the fact I am not in an actual novel reading mood this year. Therefore, when I saw that it was going to be in a graphic novel format, I preordered my copy. It was going to be illustrated by Celia Moscote (an illustrator I was unfamiliar with), but the cover gave […]

Too Many Extremes

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

by 1 Comment

In August, LittlePlat wrote about this book and I thought “huh, that sounds up my alley,” and I quickly bought it and started to read it. It took a while to get into, but by the second half of the book I couldn’t put it down, and spent a rainy day at the cottage finishing it up. I love the world building. Tidal locked planets seem to be a hot topic in sci-fi these days, and I’ve enjoyed reading some of the ideas about how […]

cbr12bingo – Debut

Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson

by Leave a Comment

Oh dear. Boys of Alabama is a lot. In Genevieve Hudson’s debut novel we are introduced to small-town Delilah, Alabama through the eyes of Max- the new kid in town. Max and his family just moved to rural America from urban Germany, and we leap into the culture shock with them. Delilah has two religions: Christianity and football- and the two form a dangerous communion. Max is sensitive, quiet, and gay. He can also bring dead things back to life; one touch and wilted flowers bloom. […]

cbr12bingo – UnCannon

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

by Leave a Comment

Jordy Rosenberg is a transgender writer and scholar. He teaches 18th century literature and queer/transgender theory. He is clever as all get out, well-researched, funny, and overflowing with empathy- all of these things brought into vivid color in his debut novel, Confessions of the Fox. I’ve selected “UnCannon” for this Bingo Square- but it was close call between UnCannon, Debut, Violet, and Pandemic (plague ships ahoy). I also almost gave it an “I Wish”, because good gravy, do I wish I could sit in on any […]

Trying too hard to be too much

Finna by Nino Cipri

by Leave a Comment

I don’t like it when recommendations and blurbs lie to me, or are misleading. I also don’t especially enjoy it when a story is trying so hard to make some kind of meaningful point that it repeatedly directly tells you it’s trying to make said point. Finna has so much going for it: basically a pair of queer employees, both of whom have emotional or neuro-divergent struggles, of a store that sounds suspiciously like IKEA, who very recently broke up, end up going on an […]

This one is for thinking, not for fun

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

by 1 Comment

I wish I’d had more time with this novel but I had to give An Unkindness of Ghosts back to the library because someone else requested it. This means I may have had to rush reading a little and thus may not be as particular about the style and details as I might otherwise be. Here’s why this matters: this is not one of those books you read and enjoy. This is one of those books you read, either don’t exactly like or quite understand […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo