Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search

About Tracy

CBR 9
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR18 Participant
CBR18 Levels

40-something psychologist living with a husband, preschooler, and 2 cats. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Tracy's Quick Questions interview.)

Tracy's Reviews:

A Quiet Book About Surviving Alone

The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

by 3 Comments

On the surface, this translated, dystopian work from 1963 doesn’t seem like it should be as engaging as it is. It’s slow-paced, introspective, and all about a woman milking a cow, scything hay, chopping wood, describing the weather, and spending time with animals. Nothing really happens. But I was so interested. The book does start with a big event, though. Our nameless narrator wakes up to find that her traveling companions who had gone out the previous night had never returned. When she heads to […]

A Light Witchy Romance

Best Hex Ever by Nadia El-Fassi

by Leave a Comment

This was a breezy, spicy, witchy romance that largely follows kitchen witch Dina. She runs a successful cafe in London, and one day Scott walks in, bringing with him what Dina views as a host of ill omens. While Scott has a number of chapters from his POV, Dina does seem to have more of them. They run into each other again on a train and soon discover that they are both part of a wedding party for their best friends Immy and Eric. The […]

Frequent Tension Made It Hard to Put Down

Kindred by Octavia Butler

by 5 Comments

This was such an intense book. I have never been this on edge for this many pages at a time when reading, which speaks to Butler’s ability to build tension and dread in this novel about slavery. We follow the first person perspective of 26-year-old Dana who one day is suddenly yanked from 1976 to the early 1800s, where she helps a drowning boy. Soon after she time travels back to her home and her husband Kevin to find that only seconds had passed. This […]

Beautiful, Emotional, and Sadly Still Relevant

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

by 1 Comment

This book is beautiful and sad and infuriating, especially in that it is still so relevant 50 years after it was written. It was a hard book to read at times but so well-done and worth it. I was hooked on the story of 19-year-old Tish, who is pregnant and engaged to Fonny—who is in jail awaiting trial for a violent crime he didn’t commit. As one might expect from Baldwin, there is a lot of focus on racism, sexism, and racial injustice, especially within […]

A Cozy Middle Grade Book

Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono

by Leave a Comment

I was looking for a cozy book after finishing the first two books in the Farseer trilogy, and this is just what I needed. Translated from Japanese, it follows 13-year-old witch Kiki. The tradition in her world is for witches to travel to a new town that does not already have a witch at some point after turning 13 and establish a life there, and they can’t go home for a year. Kiki’s magical ability is that she can fly on a broom. She lands […]

I’m Still Not Clear on How Different Wit and Skill Are

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb

by Leave a Comment

This was heavy. I had heard Robin Hobb wrote depressing books, but I expected it to be depressing due to trauma and loss, and while the books aren’t short on those things, equally depressing is the powerlessness of Fitz. I sometimes found myself chafing at the restrictions placed upon him as someone who has both too much and too little power. As the son of a prince, he is viewed as important and maybe even a threat, but as the bastard son of a prince, […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo