Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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denesteak

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denesteak's Reviews:

‘lines of a story I’ll rewrite and understand on a future rereading’

Sidewalks by Valeria Luiselli

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CBR11bingo: The Collection My first experience with Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli was her evocative, heart-wrenching run-down of a questionnaire she had to translate when interviewing children seeking asylum in the US for the New York court system. I still think of Tell Me How It Ends frequently, which is what pushed me to seek out more of her writing. Sidewalks is a collection of her essays (heyo, first Bingo square!!), translated from Spanish by Christina MacSweeney. Much of Luiselli’s writing feels very nostalgic, almost like she’s constantly looking back at a different time period, a late author who inspired her, a […]

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We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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7/8/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:4 |

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Nora Roberts-fied

Year One by Nora Roberts

Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts

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CBR11 #2: Year One by Nora Roberts My first Nora Roberts! The two books were a gift from my friend who’s a huge Nora Roberts fan, and she thought Year One could be a good entry point because I’m a real sucker for dystopia fiction. It starts out with a family vacation in Scotland, when a peasant is shot and falls right in the middle of a stone circle, and its blood seeps into the frosted ground. What appears to be a regular hunting expedition turns deadly days later when the shooter is afflicted by an incurable disease that spreads like wildfire […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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6/30/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:3 |

Shades of grey in Afghanistan, where the truth is elusive

No Good Men Among the Living by Anand Gopal

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Man, I’ve been terrible at this reviewing thing, hey? No better way to get back into it than to just jump straight in. Close to a decade ago, when I was agitating to do “real journalism” I was semi-obsessed with reading books about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I was more concerned about the writers’ inner lives, and yearned to understand how they handled these stressful situations — against the backdrop of devastating American-backed wars. And now, I have little patience for such naval-gazing (Jeffrey Gettleman’s saccharine-titled “Love, Africa” comes to mind), likely due to a niggling sense of discomfort when reading […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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5/2/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:1 |

“The world in my head has been far more real than the one outside”

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

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It’s a real shame I’ve been so terrible about reviewing because there’s been some serious gems that I’ve read this year… and I would have ended 2018 without a single review for CBR10. Life has been very full, and I could have certainly leaned on that as an excuse. But a very kind message from Mswas convinced me to at least put some effort into reviewing the latest book I finished this week. I’ve been excited to read Akwaeke Emezi’s debut novel Freshwater months before I finally held it in my hands. I thought I could wait for it to be published […]

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12/1/2018 's CBR10 Review No:1 |

universal love and pain

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

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I’m not exactly sure how Rupi Kaur became such a publicly praised and well-known poet, but the first time I read anything of hers was just a snippet on Instagram – which incidentally is what brought on the backlash. How dare this millennial poet use a millennial mode of social interaction to publicize her millennial words? The word instapoets may be descriptive – “young poets publishing verse primarily on social media,” says that Guardian article I linked to – but it also sounds so dismissive, so much like a verbal slight created by a person who is bitter that someone younger […]

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12/19/2017 's CBR9 Review No:11 |

I really wish they had just *stayed* in Tuscany for the whole month…

That Month in Tuscany by Inglath Cooper

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I can’t remember the last time I read a book that is straight-up romance genre, but I’ve been meaning to try more since the CBR community always has such fun reviews of them. So when I saw this Kindle edition book going for $0.99 on Amazon, I imagined re-living Diane Lane’s sojourn in that Tuscan sun movie and bought it. It begins with Lizzy Harper, disgruntled housewife, being told at the last minute by her workaholic husband that he won’t be able to make their long-planned Tuscan vacation. Instead of taking no for an answer and sulking at home, she […]

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12/18/2017 's CBR9 Review No:10 |

We should all be feminists. That’s pretty much a ‘duh’ statement, yea?

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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I started reading this essay by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie many months ago, when I felt inspired to download it. It is very simply written as it was originally a TED talk delivered by the author. She gave very clear examples, with some humor and snark, on why it is absolutely silly to deny women equal rights to exist in the world they inhabit. Halfway through, I stopped, and didn’t pick it up until last week. While much of the “rah rah feminism” sentiment still resonated, I couldn’t help but feel like her essay was structured in a very black-and-white manner. […]

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11/28/2017 's CBR9 Review No:9 |

As beautiful as it is broken (wherein I get a little bit personal after a hiatus)

Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli

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To say that this has been a difficult year would be an understatement. For Americans, no matter what one’s political affiliation is, it is clear to see that the rampant gas-lighting the current administration is putting us through is not normal. The word “fact” seems to have completely undergone a change in meaning, so much so that statements from politicians are view with the default setting of “definitely a lie.” Putting aside that I wake up every morning with a sense of impending dread that I’m sure has something to do with having my iPhone so close to my head […]

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9/30/2017 's CBR9 Review No:8 |


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