Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


About Sophia

CBR 3
CBR 4
CBR 5
CBR 6
CBR 7
CBR 8
CBR 9
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR18 Participant
CBR18 Levels

I love to read, and I love to learn. I wish I were retired so I could spend more time on my random flights of fancy. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Sophia's Quick Questions interview.)

Sophia's Reviews:

It started out well

First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison

by Leave a Comment

I found First-Time Caller (2025) by B.K. Borison on my library’s list of popular and available audio books. This one sounded cute and I started it with high hopes. And it started out really well. Unfortunately, I kind of lost interest in the middle and the end of the book. It wasn’t bad, but the characters didn’t seem real, and I didn’t find it very romantic. Aiden Valentine is the host of Heartstrings, a call-in radio show where he dispenses relationship advice. Although he’s not really qualified for […]

A dream state that feels real

Dream State by Eric Puchner

by Leave a Comment

Dream State (2025) by Eric Puchner is another book that I can’t remember how I discovered. I don’t know the author, and I’ve never read another book by him. But at some point I saw it, and it seemed interesting enough to put on hold at the library. I enjoyed reading this book. Both the people and their problems felt real, and it kept my attention throughout. Spoilers ahead. The book begins when a young woman, Cece, comes to Salish, Montana, a small touristy town, in […]

“My unhappiness was rooted in my mother’s inability to stop drinking.”

There Was a Little Girl by Brooke Shields

by 1 Comment

CBR17Bingo: “School” – because Brooke Shields talks a lot about the process of getting into Princeton and how much that school changed her life. I’d recently seen some media of Brooke Shields talking about her childhood, so she was in the back of my mind when I was hunting for another audiobook to listen to on my commute. Memoirs read by the author are some of my favorite audiobooks, so I was happy to pick up There Was a Little Girl (2015) by Brooke Shields and get […]

“In my mind, the world is not reasonable, and can never be made reasonable. It is more interesting than that.”

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes

by Leave a Comment

President Obama and I don’t always have the same taste in literature, but I still anticipate his list of favorite books of the year more than any other list out there (although NPR’s list is a close second). I only heard of and read In Ascension (2023) by Martin MacInnes because of Obama, and now that I’ve read it, I’m not quite sure what to think. It is definitely like nothing I’ve ever read before, and it was sometimes very moving. However, it could also be a […]

Two writers on an island

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

by Leave a Comment

CBR17Bingo: “G” I’m a fan of Emily Henry, and I’ve read most of her books, so when I saw she had a new one out: Great Big Beautiful Life (2025), I knew I would be reading it eventually. I thought this was an interesting read, although it’s not my favorite book by Henry. Alice Scott is a journalist waiting for her big break. Hayden Anderson is a pulitzer-prize winning non-fiction writer who is often grumpy. The two end up on Little Crescent Island vying for a job. […]

“But what I’m seeing is that the more comfortable he gets, the less he cares. As his importance compounds, his regard diminishes.”

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

by Leave a Comment

CBR17Bingo: “Citizen” – Using my “Free” square for the Citizen square I had no knowledge of Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism (2025) by Sarah Wynn-Williams when my book club decided it would be our next book. I’m usually a fan of listening to memoirs on audiobook, especially when they’re read by the author, so I downloaded the audiobook. Sarah Wynn-Williams (Williams) is a New Zealander who had idealistic aspirations of changing the world. She began at the United Nations and then […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo