Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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esme

Loves to read. Loves to travel. Doesn't get to do either enough.

CBR11 participantCBR 9

esme's Reviews:

Oh moon, oh stars, You heal the languor of the souls and minds…

Seven Shakespeares, Volume 1 by Harold Sakuishi

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I downloaded this manga on a whim and it really paid off! Seven Shakespeares by Harold Sakuishi has a unique arc – depicting Shakespeare’s Lost Years between 1585 and 1592. As Sakuisi notes, in 1585, “We have a young man (with children) from a small village who had received no education sufficient to be a man of letters…and then we have the greatest poet of the age…” – so what happened? The prologue centers on the enactment of Hamlet and the political powers for and against the theater. From there, the story moves to Liverpool in 1587 and focuses on […]

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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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4/16/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:4 |

The front seat is for people who’ve never been kidnapped by bloody numpties.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

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Oh what fun!  This was such a delightful read during the grim darkness of winter. I have read a few books by Rainbow Rowell that I really loved and one that didn’t work for me. When Carry On popped up at the library, I was looking for something frothy and fun and escapist, and I had no expectation about the story. I could not have chosen a better book. Simon Snow, a 17 year old boy, is the most powerful wizard ever, but he is like a magical puppy, in that he flops everywhere and has very little control over […]

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.

Share the post "The front seat is for people who’ve never been kidnapped by bloody numpties."

2/1/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:3 |

“Alexa looked down into her coffee again, gazing into the dark brown liquid like it was Dumbledore’s Pensieve”

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

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The Wedding Date, by Jasmine Guillory, is a delightful romcom that doesn’t shy away from some of the tough work involved in interracial relationships. Alexa calls Drew on his privilege many times in the book, and Drew demonstrates that he’s learning. These issues come up throughout the book, but not in a preachy way – in a way that shows a relationship growing and trust developing. Briefly, Alexa and Drew ‘meet cute’ in an elevator, which sets the stage for a fake relationship. Their chemistry is real, however, and eventually real dates ensue. Alexa is the chief of staff to the […]

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.

Share the post "“Alexa looked down into her coffee again, gazing into the dark brown liquid like it was Dumbledore’s Pensieve”"

1/4/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:2 |

“We’re meant to go. We’re not meant to stay forever.”

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

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Holiday reading is my favorite, and I was fortunate to have a rip-roaring book to tear through this holiday. I was also pleased, per the title of this post, that it ended and it will not continue as a duology or trilogy. Naomi Novik developed an imaginative world populated with  interesting characters and an engaging story. I’m quite sure the characters continued living their lives after I closed the book, but I am also happy that all necessary loose ends were wrapped up so satisfactorily. Briefly, Agnieszka is a peasant girl who lives in a quiet village that is protected from an […]

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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1/3/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:1 |

I have watched you on the shore Standing by the ocean’s roar

The Dragon Man by Garry Disher

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Detective Inspector Hal Challis is a homicide investigator who works in the Peninsula region near Melbourne, Australia. He consults across the police departments in the area – a nice conceit so the series won’t make one small town seem like the Sunnydale of serial killers! His role requires tact, as he steps in to provide expertise, It also requires him to get a strong sense of the officers he will work with, and they are a complex lot. A few thugs, some questionable personal decisions, and the lasting effects of on-the-job accident paint a fairly nuanced picture of police officers […]

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12/23/2017 's CBR9 Review No:13 |

Character is not created in times like these. It’s revealed.

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

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I read Still Life, Louise Penny’s first Inspector Gamache book, many many years ago, and while I didn’t gobble up the next several Three Pines mysteries, I have read most of them over the intervening years. The series, to me, is delightful but not essential, so I am always satisfied with what I read, but never crave more immediately. A Great Reckoning, to me, was quite different. Setting much of the action in the Surete Training School where he is the newly appointed Commander allows the narrative to move beyond the delightful residents of Three Pines – although, never fear, much […]

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12/23/2017 's CBR9 Review No:12 |

The weather outside is frightful…

White Sky, Black Ice by Stan Jones

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I don’t live in a place that has much winter anymore, so when I get the hankering for snow and ice, I tend to reach for mysteries that take place in wintery places. Stan Jones writes a series of entertaining mysteries about an Inupiat state trooper in Chukchi. Nathan Active was fostered to a white family as a baby, so he knows little of the culture of the Inupiat – so an engaging fish out of water story. The focus of the mystery is on several suicides that appear suspicious. The mystery itself isn’t terribly engaging, but it provides the framework […]

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12/23/2017 's CBR9 Review No:11 |

I sat there listening to “We Shall Overcome,” looking out of the window at the passing Mississippi landscape

The Coming of Age in Mississippi: The Classic Autobiography of Growing Up Poor and Black in the Rural South by Anne Moody

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Anne Moody’s The Coming of Age in Mississippi is not an easy book to read and certainly Ms. Moody did not have an easy life. She captures it with a somewhat ramshackle approach, which I appreciated because it read like someone recounting memories and impressions, rather than a carefully plotted reflection. Her parents were tenant farmers in Mississippi and she grew up in extreme poverty. They regularly ate just bread or just beans and her hunger throughout childhood certainly is a driver in her decisions going forward. The first section of the book is about her early childhood through high […]

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12/21/2017 's CBR9 Review No:10 |


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