Cannonball Read 12

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About Ale

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I'm adjuncting in creative writing, and I'm in the midst of editing my first novel. Along with CBR, I have book reviews published with "The Literary Review," short essay with "Fiction Southeast" and a forthcoming publication with "The Book Smuggler's Den." CBR has definitely helped my writing skills since now I know what readers are looking for for in their works. So, thank you, CBR! Hopefully someday, we'll be able to review my novel on this blog. :)

Ale's Reviews:

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Nancy Drew for the New Generation……and 2nd Bingo!

Pepper's Rules for Secret Sluething by Briana McDonald

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One of my MFA cohorts just published her debut novel, and of course, I had to buy it. Pepper’s Rules for Secret Sleuthing is a middle-grade story about our hero, Pepper, who’s gone with her father to help settle the estate of a late family relative. However, when they get there, Pepper notices some strange behavior from her own aunt and a few facts that don’t seem to add up. With the help of a neighborhood boy and unexpected assistance from her cousin, Pepper tries to […]

An Opera Story that Doesn’t Include Phantoms

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee

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I will start this review by saying I DNFed this book at about a hundred pages, but not because I didn’t like it. I really liked it. But I’ve realized I am a bad reader on digital platforms. I tried Hoopla for the first time, hoping to fill the void that’s been the suspension on our county-wide library lending program. I borrowed Queen of the Night from Hoopla and had an immensely hard time reading it on my computer screen. Which seems ridiculous since I […]

Gardening to Victory

Gardens for Victory by Jean Marie Putnam & Llyod C. Cosper

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In a box my grandmother hadn’t opened for probably fifty years, she found a swath of old family documents, and in it was this book, Gardens for Victory, a comprehensive  guide to teach Americans how to  supplement their ration cards during World War II with sustainable gardening. We have no idea how the little pamphlet never got thrown away; the spine was very bent and the pages dog-eared, meaning my great-grandparents probably followed its instructions during the war for their own gardens. The fact that it had […]

Stone and Ash and Magic

The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin

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The more of Jemisin’s works I read, the more I fall in love with her craft. The Obelisk Gate is book two in her Broken Earth Trilogy, and even though I’m normally not the biggest fan of any middle book in a trilogy, I enjoyed this book even more than her first one. We pick up the story almost exactly where we left off in book one, and follow Essun as she pivots her focus from finding her daughter, Nassun, to assisting the orogenes of Castrima […]

1st Bingo!

Andrea Vernon & the Corporation for Ultra-Human Protection by Alexander C. Kane

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While I don’t normally go in for the self-published or amazon-only published books, crystalclear listened to the audio version of Andrea Vernon & the Corporation for Ultra-Human Protection, and adored it, so I told her I’d give it a go. She loves me, and bought me the print copy since I don’t do audio books, and it was an absolute delight. This book is just fun. Andrea Vernon is the most relatable millennial, struggling to find employment in NYC while also being true to herself […]



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