Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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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.

 

“Katarina Shaw was in the building, and she had come to win.”

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

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Confession 1: I have rewritten the quote used for the title of this review.  The actual line from the book is “Katarina Shaw was in the building, and that bitch had come to win.” but I didn’t want to swear in the title of a review.  Katarina (Kat) Shaw and Heath Rocha are ice dancers with Olympic aspirations, while they have talent they don’t exactly have much support (emotionally or financially) from the people in their lives.  Kat’s mother died when she was six, and […]

The Year of the Hare – Modern Life is Rubbish

The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna

by 1 Comment

Last November I got the opportunity to see The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna at the Finnish National Theatre (it is the oldest Finnish-language professional theatre, established 1872). The Year of Hare is one of the most internationally successful Finnish book. And 2025 we are celebrating its 50th anniversary. After reading the book I watched the movie again to complete the Trifecta of the Hare. It is Midsummer’s Eve or Eve’s Eve in Finland in the mid-1970s. Sacred time. Mr Kaarlo Vatanen, the […]

The Silmarillion

The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

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To begin with I’m shocked how much I liked this. If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, and especially if you’re friends with an extra intense fan, you almost certainly know about this book. Within what you know, probably infamy? As in, this is an infamously dull book that even hardcore fans typically don’t recommend. The style is dry, the language plodding, and the family trees extensive. But, if you’ve ever asked yourself in earnest, “so who tf is Gandalf really and why does […]

Two if by Sea: Two Reviews, One Recommendation

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of the HMS Bounty by Sir John Barrow

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Ahoy, mateys! I bring you two tales of adventure from the sea. I’ve had In the Heart of the Sea on my list for quite awhile due to its Moby Dick connection, and I decided to follow that up with another classic true tale: The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of the HMS Bounty. Was I pushing my luck by reading two non-fiction seafaring adventures in a row? Perhaps. In the Heart of the Sea By the time Moby Dick was published […]

He Is Your Father

Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right by Walter Mosley

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Walter Mosley has two idiosyncratic mystery series set in New York City: Leonid McGill and King Oliver. I’ve written before about my fondness for the McGill series. They’re not significantly different from the King Oliver books but I like how Leonid is a former crime fixer who is trying to do right in a neo-surrealist Manhattan. Oliver’s story is interesting but I don’t find the character as compelling. That changed a bit with this one. Amidst several plots, King has to try and find his […]

Knowledge is Power, and Less Time Standing in Line

The Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando 2025 by Seth Kubersky, Alicia Stella

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Half the fun of traveling is planning for said traveling. I enjoy learning about where I’m going, suggestions for the best places to eat, visit, and stay, all of the options like jigsaw pieces I get to put together to create the perfect trip. Even with places I’ve been to many times, like Universal Orlando, I like getting the travel guides so I can note the latest changes to crowd patterns, new foods, and ways to get the most out of my days in the […]



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