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.

 

Hook, Line and Thinker

All Fours by Miranda July

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If you’ve been traipsing around the ‘new book recommendations’ corners of the internet that I frequent, you’ve likely already read the (very effective) hook for July’s latest novel: “A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different journey.” It certainly was effective on me, and I dived into this novel with reckless abandon. It’s […]

When your past tries to kill you

Spook Street by Mick Herron

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Spook Street centres around David Cartwright, a spook (spy) emeritus who is now losing his memory, burdening his grandson River. River joined the Mi5 British intelligence service, following in grandpa’s footsteps, but became a laughing stock now resigned to a subunit in Slough House with the other “Slow Horse” agents with metaphorical egg on their faces. But there are other spooks, too. We meet a new Slow Horse named Coe, who has been so traumatized that he can’t stand human contact and can only listen […]

“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

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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 […]



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