Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Disney World lover. Chewbacca hugger. Reader of books. Writer of words.

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So many people spent their lives wishing to be understood. All Alice wanted was more time.

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

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CBR14BINGO: Time Square (Hitting the nail on the head here. Very literal. Time in the title. The whole plot is about Time. You get it.) Alice is about to turn 40. A milestone birthday for anyone, but particularly for someone who generally keeps their life on an unproblematic even keel. She lives in New York City where she grew up. Works in the admissions department of her old high school, walking the same hallways of her youth. She even has a convenient boyfriend that doesn’t make […]

..they suspended their arguments, united for once in their astonishment at the unusual spectacle of an elephant lumbering across the square.

The Elephant of Belfast by S. Kirk Walsh

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CBR14 BINGO: Elephant Square (Another literal one. Sometimes googling for the square yields great results, sometimes not so much. ) In 1940s Belfast, a young woman working at the local zoo sees the arrival of a new baby elephant as her opportunity to prove herself. Hoping to become the first female zookeeper at the Belfast zoo, Hettie quickly takes on the responsibility of handling the elephant in addition to all of the menial responsibilities delegated to her. Work is her escape after Hettie’s father abandons […]

You are not the arbiter of knowledge, sir. You are its librarian.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

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CBR14 BINGO: Question square (I was going to give this the Gaslight square until I read the author’s note: “This book began as two simple questions: Do words mean different things to men and women? And if they do, is it possible that we have lost something in the process of defining them.” Question square it is.) This one will definitely be on my favorite books of the year list. Hearbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure. Esme’s father is an Oxford lexicographer working on creating the […]

No one had ever told them that at the end there was a choice and it is not the dying who make it.

The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan

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CBR14 BINGO: Bird square (Full disclosure: this book is not about birds. In my defense of this square filler, the book’s blurb mentions orange-bellied parrots. Parrots do appear in the story, albeit briefly, and I’m counting it because I had to read this book and I want credit for it.) Did you ever read a book that you knew would be considered a masterpiece by a lot of people, could even understand why people would think that and still find the reading of it not worth […]

I am a bad mother but I am learning to be good.

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

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CBR14 BINGO: Rec’d Square (Barack Obama’s Summer 2022 Reading List. And, just about everybody’s book club recommends this.) This is a really tough one to review without giving BIG plot points away. Proceed with caution. It’s easy to feel guilty when you’re a mother. When my son was born almost 7 weeks early, a social worker came to visit me in my hospital room while he was still in the NICU. From what I remember from that day 17 years ago, the social worker was kind […]

So are you glad I plunged in after you now?

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

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CBR14 BINGO: Camel/Adapt Square (Adapting to a family chock full of magic when you only have a drop/Adapting to a new job and a whole magical world you did not know existed. A whole lot of adapting going on.) Witty banter, slow burning spiciness and magic make for a great little book. Edwin, a member of a powerful magical family, is the runt of his lineage. Born with just a little spark of magic, Edwin makes do as a liaison between the British government and magical […]



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