Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

About The Chancellor

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

(Learn more about this Cannonballer: The Chancellor's Quick Questions interview.)

The Chancellor's Reviews:

A Loss of Innocence

Our Town by Thornton Wilder

by Leave a Comment

Our Town by Thornton Wilder My rating: 4 of 5 stars “Our Town” is one of those plays that takes you by surprise. I first read it in my master’s program in an “Modern American Drama” class. I had heard of the play but never read it. From the beginning, Wilder establishes that this play is unlike others of its time. The Stagemaster (narrator) constantly breaks the fourth wall but also interacts with the characters in the play. There’s audience participation (they’re plants from the […]

“The Bible becomes a confusing mess when we expect it to function as a rulebook for faith. But when we allow the Bible to determine our expectations, we see that Wisdom, not answers, is the Bible’s true subject matter.”

How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How An Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers--and Why That's Great News by Peter Enns

by Leave a Comment

How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How An Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers—and Why That’s Great News by Peter Enns My rating: 5 of 5 stars I first heard of Peter “Pete” Enns on the “Bible for Normal People” podcast and greatly appreciated not only his own commentary but also the guests and discussions that he hosts on each episode. This lead me to hearing that he had written a book. So I went out […]

Pilgrim’s Progress, Or Why It’s Important to Follow Directions

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

by Leave a Comment

The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan My rating: 3 of 5 stars Growing up in a Christian faith-community, I had heard off and on of “Pilgrim’s Progress”. No one I knew had actually read it, but the gist of the story was passed around. I’ve been trying to revamp my British literature course and my Enlightenment/Interregnum period needs some work. This book happens to fall into that period and since I teach at a Christian private school I figured it might be a good fit. […]

“True belonging doesn’t require us to change who we are. It requires us to be who we are.”

Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brené Brown

by 2 Comments

Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brené Brown My rating: 4 of 5 stars In response to all the tension in the U.S. of which the 2016 election became a lightening rod, Brené Brown went to her research to find what it takes to bring people back together so that individuals and society can keep moving forward together rather than apart. She develops an acronym BRAVING that describes the types of traits individuals need to have […]

Preparing for Easter

Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings from C.S. Lewis by C.S. Lewis

by Leave a Comment

Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings from C. S. Lewis by C.S. Lewis My rating: 4 of 5 stars “Preparing for Easter” by C.S. Lewis is a thought-a-day for Lent. There’s a theme for each week and each selection from Lewis’s works ties in to this theme. When I first picked up the book, I thought it was actually written by C.S. Lewis. It does not take long to realize that this is not the case. Instead, the publishers have taken short pieces from the […]

“I wonder what it would be like to be free?”

Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez

by Leave a Comment

Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez My rating: 3 of 5 stars It wasn’t until I was in college completing classes for my Spanish degree that I learned about the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. I was disappointed in my education up to that point, that I had never learned about this tragic time in Dominican history. Since college, I have rarely heard about Trujillo and his regime mentioned. I have taught one of Julia Alvarez’s short stories in my English classes and […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo