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:

A Whole Lot to Juggle

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

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CBR15 Bingo Hold Steady So Harlem in the 60’s.  Everyone’s just trying to get by.  Ray Carney’s worked his way from a hardscrabble youth to being a solid family man with an up and coming furniture store on 125th.  But there is his cousin and best friend, Freddie.  Ray’s mother was long gone and his dad was always sketchy.  But Freddie and his mom, Aunt Millie, they were his family.  Freddie, however, always ran a bit on the wild side, and when he shows up […]

Convoluted and Fun

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

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CBR15 Passport – Federal District of Sitka CBR15 Bingo In the Wild So there are a few things different this time around.  After WWII, Israel collapsed as a state and is no longer accommodating to Jewish refugees.  As a matter of fact, the only place they can gain at least temporary refuge is the Federal District of Sitka.  As long as they play nice and share it with the native Tlingit.  So that works for 60 years or so, but the District is now set […]

What Do You Call a Golddigger These Days, Anyway?

The Case of the Golddigger's Purse by Erle Stanley Gardner

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cbr15 bingo On the Air   Could there be a more ‘30s – ’50s term than golddigger?  Anyone who has watched classic movies of that period knows exactly who she is – a woman looking for a wealthy sugar daddy.  Think Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, or maybe Some Like It Hot.  And generally in these films, not only is she in the market for gold, but more often than not, she also has a heart of gold. And a good thing in this tale, since she […]

Just Because a Famous Guy Wrote It. . .

Peter the Great’s African: Experiments in Prose by Alexander Pushkin

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cbr15 bingo Europe When I saw Pushkin’s name on this, it was very familiar of course, but I couldn’t remember reading anything by him.  Come to find out, he may be the Father of Russian Literature, but he’s a poet, and I mostly do novels.  But the familiar feeling I was getting was because he was also the go-to source for the Russian romantic composers, a genre I have always loved.  Ruslan and Lyudmila?  Overture by Glinka.  Eugene Onegin?  An opera by Tchaikovsky, best known […]

Gird Your Loins. But It’s Worth It.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

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cbr15 bingo History So this was a 1000 page doorstopper, and apparently the first of a trilogy.  And you know what?  Bring it on. Set in England during those dicey years before the Plantagenet crew really took hold, it’s basically the story of the building of a cathedral.  But the thing about building a cathedral, especially in these early days?  It’s a community endeavor headed by Some Guy (Tom Builder to start with in this case) but it must be a feat of sustained passion […]

Isolated South Sea island. What could go wrong?

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins

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cbr15bingo Relation”ship” Reckless?  Hmm.  Not the adjective I’d use.  Girls without a plan.  Girls who bounce from one dire situation to another without a whole lot of forethought.  Girls who rely on their good looks to temporarily find themselves in a cushy position, but never learn how to leverage it.  Girls who live in a sketchy rich bro world and don’t mind it at all.  Girls who eventually start dying left and right.  At least the bros do as well, so there’s that. This book […]



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