Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Featured Review Archive

These reviews, which were promoted in CBR social media, on our homepage, and in Pajiba Love, appear below by review publication date, not by date featured.

 

Watch The Shadows

Book Of Night by Holly Black

Thief Of Night by Holly Black

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For my birthday this year I decided to read both books in the Charlatan Duology, Holly Black’s Book Of Night and Thief Of Night. I’m a lucky, lucky little shadow creature. Charlie Hall is a (mostly) former con-artist trying to go straight and send her little sister to college. She used to be the Charlatan, an intriguingly effective thief willing to work in the world of shadow magicians.  With just a little blood and a lot of trauma you too can waken your shadow for […]

1929

1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin

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1929 is one of those books I think it’s important to read, but I can’t say I enjoyed it. This is a deeply depressing book in today’s information economy (and regular economy) because it shows you how few lessons we’ve learned in the one hundred years since the Great Depression. Not only do we repeat the same financial mistakes over and over, we apparently have also never punished the people who make financial disaster happen. It echoes a lot of the lessons we failed to […]

If our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

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I’ll start with the bottom line: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in years. Author Rebecca Skloot not only explains the science in a compelling, accessible manner, she also explores the ethics of the medical research and devotes at least half the book to the people that were touched by Henrietta Lacks and her legacy. Five enthusiastic stars! It’s hard to say where this story “begins,” because it really depends on whether you are talking about […]

No Sir, I Just Didn’t Like It

Flesh by David Szalay

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More often than I’d like to admit, on a Friday night, I’ll turn on the Sportsball, and enjoy some bubbles and a packet of potato chips for dinner.  Compelling eating – once you pop, and all that – but ultimately nutritionless, completely bad for me. I consumed Flesh over the course of a late afternoon, all in one sitting, not unlike those potato chips.  I walked away feeling the same dearth of depth and sustenance.  I’m struggling with how to approach reviewing it, because I […]

Review: Butterfly Games

Butterfly Games by Kelly Scarborough

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  Disclaimer: I received a copy via  Librarything giveaway. A blurb for this refers to The Other Boleyn Girl.  I disagree with Gregory’s view of Anne Boleyn in the novel, but I also found it a compelling read.  It’s a guilty pleasure book. Butterfly Games is not that. The only thing that stands out is that Scarborough found the real-life Jacquette Gyldenstople interesting.  But that does not translate to the book in any meaningful way. The reader is introduced to Jacquette after her parents’ divorce, […]

Slow Dance…Slow Burn

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

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Confession: I’ve been in a reading slump. Like, for a long time. And usually Janet brings me out of my slump with a shot of Stephanie/Ranger/Morelli throuple-ness around the holidays, but Janet didn’t publish a book this year. She’s also the one who gets me to at least write one review. Aside: Will this year be the year I write more than one? Who knows? Probably not. Anyway. I didn’t realize how much I missed Rainbow until I read Slow Dance. This is just a […]



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