Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Rachel

CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant

I love to read and would like to get better about reviewing the books I go through every year. Fighting cancer at the same time only makes it better. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Rachel's Quick Questions interview.)

Rachel's Reviews:

A Worthwhile Read

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

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This book tackles the true story of the government’s attempt to terminate the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa tribe in 1954. The Night Watchman follows several tribal members’ lives as they navigate this treacherous decision spurred on by a real Senator from Utah. We follow Thomas, the Night Watchman of jewel bearing plant (and he is based on the author’s grandfather), Pixie, who works at the jewel bearing plant and has dreams of a different life, and several other characters who are part of […]

Park Avenue Summer by Renee Rosen

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Park Avenue Summer is the fictionalized story of the revamp of Cosmopolitan magazine in the early 1960s. The novel is full of glamorous fashion, fancy lunches and dinner dates, and other glimpses of high society. Unfortunately, the plot fell flat for me. Our protagonist Alice is your typical small-town girl who somehow lands a position as a secretary for Cosmo editor Helen Gurley Brown through a series of meet-cutes. There is some mystery of Alice’s family, but I confess I have already forgotten the mystery […]

https://cannonballread.com/2020/04/park-avenue-summer-rachel/

Give Me All the Dystopian Mean Girls Drama

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

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This was a creepy YA thriller that I do not recommend picking up late at night. You will stay up way past your bedtime reading this novel of messed up teenage girls forced into a life or death scenario. Learn from me, as I spent way too many nights reading past midnight. The Grace Year is set in a society somewhat like a fundamentalist cult in the 1800s. Tierney is our main character, a middle child in a large family who is about to experience […]

A Creepy Book About Supernatural Kids? Sign Me Up!

The Institute by Stephen King

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Stephen King never disappoints me. The Institute is well-written, engaging, mysterious, slightly creepy, and upsetting. King is a master at developing characters and making us care deeply about them. Then he develops new sets of characters and brings everyone together for an amazing plot. But smarter people e have written about King’s works, so I will stop. But he always impresses me. We start with a former cop turned drifter who ends up in a small town working on a railroad. Nothing to see here, […]

Second Books in a Series Always Drag

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

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This book is the second installment in the Legacy of Orisha series by Tomi Adeyemi. I enjoyed the first book, thanks to excellent character development and world-building. SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST BOOK FOLLOW!! After killing the evil King, Zelie and the King’s daughter work with other maji to fight against the evil Queen and the Prince, who is no longer on Zelie’s side. Now ordinary people like the Princess have magical powers, but those powers are slightly different from maji. Honestly, I don’t want to […]

Stop Scrolling!

Followers by Megan Angelo

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Followers gave me some seriously creepy and unsettling feelings. It’s a novel told from various points of view across two timelines: one group of characters lives in New York City in the year 2015, and the other group lives in a futuristic planned community monitored by cameras and streamed to the rest of America in 2051. Think Big Brother live, 23 hours a day, for a person’s entire life…oh plus product placements. Around 2016, there is something called the “spill” that happens and changes the […]



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