Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

octothorp

I buy books faster than I can read them.

CBR11 participantCBR11 LevelsCBR10 participantCBR 9

octothorp's Reviews:

Hi, fellow kids!

A World Without “Whom” by Emmy Favilla

by Leave a Comment

I was hoping this was going to be a book about the evolution of language, what I got was Strunk and White for the Internet age.  Which seems bizarre, as internet slang is all about breaking every rule, setting fire to the rulebook, and dancing in the ashes. Not to mention that being at the speed of real-time, Internet fads and slang have the shelf life of raw beef. I’m pretty sure three slang terms were created and deemed passé since I started this paragraph. The irony of a printed style guide for Internet writing notwithstanding, this is pretty much […]

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 "Hi, fellow kids!"

10/7/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:79 |

And the writing is anything but

Stiff by Mary Roach

by Leave a Comment

Another re-read for me, this time because my workplace book club suggested it. Feelings were mixed, in part because the text and writing style were, contrary to the title, so loose. The naysayers felt like the chapters were disjointed and that the writer was too flip, looking for a joke rather than research, but for my part I think it’s well balanced. Stiff follows what happens to the human body after we die – not the experience of death, not what happens to “us,” but the various things that can happen to a body once there’s no one there possessing […]

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 "And the writing is anything but"

10/2/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:78 |

Perfection

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

by Leave a Comment

Ok, well, maybe not perfect. But darn good. I’ve been re-reading books from my collection attempting to pare it down to four full bookcases, and this was one I didn’t remember enough of.  So far, every book I’ve re-read for this purpose has gone in the resale pile, but this one I burned through; it’s just so damn well written. The Imperfectionists is the tale of a global newspaper and its decline as told through snapshots in the lives of its contributors. That sounds bone dry, but Rachman manages to make his characters distinct enough that their personalities come through […]

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 "Perfection"

10/2/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:77 |

Blackbird swearing in the dead of night

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

by Leave a Comment

What a strange book.  That’s not an insult coming from me, but I think this book suffers from a surfeit of ideas; Anders has A LOT to say here about the intersection of and battle between science and nature, and it all comes out in a book that’s not quite big enough to contain them all, which was the problem I had with her most recent novel that I read earlier this year. Like with that one, there are worse things than too many ideas, but it does feel a bit overstuffed with concepts whereas The City in the Middle […]

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 "Blackbird swearing in the dead of night"

9/25/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:76 |

If you believe in success you’ll be relieving your stress

Top Dog by Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman

by Leave a Comment

I bought this solely on the strength of the collaborators’ Nurture Shock, a book which was completely eye-opening for me, but whose shocks have diminished as the counter-intuitive truths have entered the mainstream (i.e. don’t praise children for their intelligence, praise their effort because the former is seen as intrinsic whereas they have control over the latter). Didn’t even know what this one was about when I bought it, I just wanted more of the same type of research and unexpected results. I wasn’t disappointed. This book follows the psychology of success and likewise finds the unexpected, how having a […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

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

  • Top Dog by Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman

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 "If you believe in success you’ll be relieving your stress"

9/25/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:75 |

Opacities (Blackout Bingo, Award winners)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

by Leave a Comment

Ok, I had half started this review for my penultimate bingo square, and then realized that I almost missed the opportunity to make this book LITERALLY TITLED ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE AND FEATURING A BLIND PROTAGONIST my blackout finish. Luckily I realized my error in time to finish strong. This book follows Marie-Laure, a girl with congenital cataracts which have left her blind, in Nazi-occupied France. Her father, a locksmith for the Museum, is one of four employees sent with a priceless gem and three decoys to various parts of the country to avoid it falling into enemy […]

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 "Opacities (Blackout Bingo, Award winners)"

9/24/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:74 |

Rings a Bell (bingo, classics)

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

by Leave a Comment

I may be the only person in the world to say this, but I somehow wasn’t the right age to read The Bell Jar – THE book about depressed young women navigating their way into adulthood from a charmed childhood – as a college student.  I think I needed the distance of adulthood to recognize myself in Esther Greenwood. I hated this book the first time I read it because I had emerged from a grief-induced depression the year before and none of Esther’s experiences seemed to match my own despair, but I somehow missed the metaphor of the anhedonia […]

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 "Rings a Bell (bingo, classics)"

9/23/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:73 |

These hoes ain’t loyal (banned books, bingo)

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

by Leave a Comment

Um. No. I’m champagne taste on a beer budget incarnate, but it’s never led me to cheat on and bankrupt an adoring spouse. I am bougie as hell in some ways but I’m not about to let my kid go without so I can have luxury. I may have debt but I’m not about to turn a blind eye to it by paying off credit with more credit. I love a good fantasy but I know where reality’s hard border is. Fuuuuuuck you, Emma Bovary. I get why this was banned, even if it’s hilariously tame to the modern reader. […]

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 "These hoes ain’t loyal (banned books, bingo)"

9/13/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:72 |


Shop on Amazon and Support CBR

Buy Original Cannonballer Prisco's book and help CBR!

Ad Partner