The time has come to bring our Tenth Anniversary year to a close, what better excuse can there be for a Holiday Book Exchange? For the past several years we’ve had a completely voluntary Book Exchange and it is my pleasure to handle the organizational components for us again. It’s a lovely part of our community here at CBR and a great way to get to know a fellow Cannonballer a little bit better. It’s also a great excuse to share a little holiday cheer and do some spending through the Cannonball Read Buy Hole. (Remember, any funds generated through the Buy Hole are […]
Quick Questions with a Cannonballer – Leedock
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You achieved your first Cannonball in CBR3 and came back to Cannonball again for CBR10 (Congrats!). What happened in the lost years in between? Were you still reading and writing? I signed up for CBR3 while riding on the high of having sent my kid off to kindergarten. Having free “me” time during the day, I decided to take the plunge. It was HARD. I let the reviews pile up and it was a struggle to get it completed. I thought about joining again eventually and when I realized the 10th anniversary was coming up, I just decided to go […]
This didn’t even get me a bingo
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Bingo Square: White Whale The House of the Spirits tells the story of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban and his wife Clara, who has ‘spiritual’ tendencies and foresees the future, their daughter Blanca who falls in love with a man her father despises, and Alba, the granddaughter Esteban adores. The book also covers the political upheavals of Chile and how that impacts the family. I haven’t read any Allende before, even though I’ve been meaning to, so this seemed a good opportunity for it. I am sorry to say I was disappointed – and often infuriated […]
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Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.
11/14/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:42 |
Just what I needed
RAFE: A Buff Male Nanny by Rebekah Weatherspoon
Y’all, it’s been a motherfucker of a year. I need comfort and this book is it. Rebekah Weatherspoon is at the top of my must-buy list. She writes fun, satisfying romance with diversity of race, body type, sexuality, gender, it’s an intersectional love fest with her and I am here for it. In Rafe we have, well, Rafe! The Buff Male Nanny. He’s red headed, bearded, tattooed, and his masculinity is non-toxic. He’s just left his latest nanny gig when then family he works for relocates to Australia and he’s not sure he wants to be a nanny anymore. Our […]
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Purchase RAFE: A Buff Male Nanny by Rebekah Weatherspoon or any item from amazon via our link.
Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.
11/14/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:4 | 
| Tags: #CBR10, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Rebekah Weatherspoon, romance | Category: Fiction, Romance | 2 Comments
Madness, Illness, Grief, and The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Beware of mild spoilers … I recently finished watching The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix. But it is still with me. It was at times an uncomfortable watch, but it also may be one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time. It can’t really be called an adaptation of the immortal Shirley Jackson novel. That classic book could be considered more of a jumping-off point for this, an original, deeply-felt horror story. The original novel, first published in 1959, concerns a group of disparate people who have come together to study a house with a bad, […]
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Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.
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11/14/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:22 | | Tags: #CBR10, Books, Carla Gugino, horror, mini-series, Netflix, Shirley Jackson, television, the haunting, The Haunting of Hill House, Timothy Hutton | Category: Fiction, Horror | 0 Comments
Sea Section seems like a perfectly reasonable name for a beach house.
Calypso by David Sedaris
So I picked Calypso by David Sedaris as my “Brain Candy” square for CBR10 Bingo, which after reading it, seems like maybe not the best choice, because these short stories are a bit darker than usual. Sedaris’ sister Tiffany committed suicide in 2013, and this, his mother’s alcoholism, and a strange tumour growing on his side become the running topics in many of the stories in his first compilation in five years. Calypso is still hilariously funny, in exactly the ways you expect it to be. I’ve always had a soft spot for Sedaris and his entire family, mostly because they’re from North Carolina […]
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Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.
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11/14/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:22 | 
| Tags: Calypso, cbr10bingo, David Sedaris, short stories | Category: Comedy/Humor, Short Stories | 0 Comments
You know what sucks? Not this!
Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan O'Malley
This is the 6th and final book of the Scott Pilgrim volumes. I read only the final book, despite it being years since last revisiting the series*. I first read Scott Pilgrim in my early 20’s, back when I still believed in love and Michael Cera, but now I’m totally grown up and recognize Pilgrim for the whiny twat he is. PSYCH. I still love him. The Scott Pilgrim series tells the story of Scott who meets Ramona at a party and falls head over heels for her, but Ramona brings dangerous baggage in the form of seven evil exes […]
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Purchase Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan O'Malley or any item from amazon via our link.
Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.
11/14/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:41 | | Tags: #CBR10, bryan o'malley, cbr10bingo, comedy, gaphic novels, Mathildehoeg, michael cera, scott pilgrim, this is the end | Category: Comedy/Humor, Graphic Novel/Comic | 0 Comments
The Movie Was Better
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
BINGO! Cannonballer Says, Listicles, Cannonbookclub, The Book Was Better?, Home, Something Home (Yay, I did it!) When my husband suggested we go see Crazy Rich Asians, a movie he had heard profiled on NPR, I just about fell out of my chair. We don’t go to the movies together. I think the last one we saw in the theatre together was XMen 3, which came out in 2006. So off we went, and we really loved it. It was funny, and warm, and charming, and the leading lady Rachel, and the leading man Henry were both very dashing and fun […]
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Purchase Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan or any item from amazon via our link.
Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.
11/14/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:11 | | Tags: #CBR10, bingo, representation matters, The Book was Better? | Category: Comedy/Humor, Fiction, Romance | 0 Comments
An Unflinching Portrayal of Cycles of Trauma, But Not Without the Hope of Healing
The Outside Circle by Patti LaBoucane-Benson and Kelly Mellings
First off I want to begin by giving a shoutout to my local library: there was an explosion deliberately set off at the building that holds the library last week (as well as suspicion of a potential shooting situation), which has caused a lot of shutdown in the area as investigations and structural assessment are ongoing. But the library continues to work hard to provide what services they can in spite of all of this, through popup locations, the bookmobile, etc. as well as provide as much comprehensive information on what services can and cannot be done (and how) at […]
Help Support Cannonball Read
Purchase The Outside Circle by Patti LaBoucane-Benson and Kelly Mellings or any item from amazon via our link.
Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.
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11/14/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:57 | | Tags: cbr10bingo, kelly mellings, patti laboucane-benson, underrepresented | Category: Graphic Novel/Comic | 0 Comments
I wish this book had never come to me (or: I’ll take “Lazy, Unfunny Review Titles for Lazy, Unfunny Books” for $200, Alex)
My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler
CBR10Bingo: Alabama Pink (BINGO!) I chose Chelsea Handler’s My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands for my Alabama Pink square, thinking I could breeze through it, laughing a bit along the way and then completely forgetting it as soon as I finished, but man, this book was so bad that I couldn’t get past the fifth chapter. I’d already powered my way through some terrible books this year, and the world is just too crappy a place right now, so I gave myself permission to put this one down without finishing. It’s poorly written. It’s juvenile. It’s aggressively offensive […]
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Purchase My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler or any item from amazon via our link.
Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.
Share the post "I wish this book had never come to me (or: I’ll take “Lazy, Unfunny Review Titles for Lazy, Unfunny Books” for $200, Alex)"
11/13/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:62 | | Tags: #CBR10, cbr10bingo, chelsea handler, My Horizontal Life, unfunny, zero stars | Category: Biography/Memoir, Comedy/Humor | 1 Comment