Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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About elderberrywine

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Elder LOTR/Holmes fan girl/writer since forever. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: elderberrywine's Quick Questions interview.)

elderberrywine's Reviews:

Voted “The Most Beautiful Baby in Hong Kong” in 1947 – and He Was!

Vagabond: A Memoir by Tim Curry

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cbr18bingo Card – Clown (Because, c’mon, Pennywise!) There are two Muppet movies that will always make me squee, because of their human costars.  The first is Christmas Carol with Michael Caine, and the second is Treasure Island with Tim Curry.  (An astute critic remarked that the first one works because Caine never treats his costars as anything other than human, while the second succeeds because Curry is a Muppet).  If there is a comic villain needed, Curry is your man.  What I had no idea […]

Bits and Pieces Crumbling as I Read

The City of Dreadful Night by Rudyard Kipling

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    cbr18bingo Card repair – because this book is totally beyond that Well this was definitely something different – in more ways than one. I’ve never had a book that actually crumbled in my hands as I read it. I picked it up at a library sale, because it was going for a dollar, and it was Kipling (fond memories of The Jungle Book and Kim) so how could I go wrong? Turns out it was one of his first published books, in 1885, […]

The Aftermath of One World War Still Lingers, But the Next Is Coming Right Along

The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear

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cbr18bingo Card – Middle (as per title) Oh, dear, have gotten behind in my reviewing (definitely not in reading) of my pet Maisie Dobbs series. It’s 1932 and Billy, her invaluable assistant, has a wife on fragile ground, and meanwhile, her beloved mentor Dr. Maurice isn’t doing too well either.  In the midst of all this, she gets a new case that she can’t refuse.  A wealthy couple has just come back from France, where the remains of their son have been uncovered on the […]

You Get Your Choices and You Take Your Chances

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

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cbr18bingo Or (like it says above) This is the third book from Whitehead that I have read – each one a treat and all so very different.  No matter what the subject matter is, he is just a flat out good writer.  (The other two were Sag Harbor and Harlem Shuffle, by the way).  There is a reason he won two Pulitzers in a row. Elwood Curtis and Jack Turner are two black teenagers who end up in the reform school Nickel Academy (based on […]

More Adventures with the Kids Who Had the Best Childhood Ever.

Pigeon Post by Arthur Ransome

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cbr18bingo Birds Another from the Sparrows and Amazons series and it’s just what the doctor ordered.  Like sinking into a cozy armchair with a steaming cup of tea at your side.  So this time the crew is set off on holidays to explore High Topps, a large mountain not far from their lakeside homes.  Rumor has it that there is gold in them there hills, and they are aiming to produce a sample before Uncle Jim returns to his houseboat.  This will involve much camping […]

Mom? Have You Written Your Book Yet?

The Long Song by Andrea Levy

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bcr18bingo Justice Having just read a novel set in 18th century Haiti, it was curious to see the differences between Island Beneath the Sea, Isabel Allende, and this one.  Set in Jamaica instead, the settlers and plantation owners are British rather than French, a far more homogeneous upper class, and this tale is also on a much smaller scale.  Not to mention that it is in some ways a more light-hearted tale, albeit not without the occasional brutal scenes that are part of any portrayal […]



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