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.

 

Kickstarter exclusives are getting to be a little annoying…

Trick r' Treat: 15th Anniversary Collection by Michael Dougherty & Various

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With the theater re-release renewing my love for the property, and the sequel film still way off in the horizon, I jumped at the opportunity for any more Trick r’ Treat content and put my hand in for this omnibus collection when I saw the Kickstarter announced. My collection always felt like it was missing a copy of the comics, and this compiles both comics, plus a brand new, exclusive story. How could I not pull the trigger on it? The existing stories still hold […]

“The world isn’t built for the needs of disabled kids quite yet. Until it is, we must work hard finding creative ways to get things done & make life fun!”

The ABCs of Disabilities by Sean Gold

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When you’re speaking to directly to an audience of mostly children, especially ones who either can’t read independently yet, or are just learning to read, it’s understandably easy to fall into a lot of simple traps.  A lot of picture books I’ve encountered are either too babyish or too preachy, too oversimplified or not simplified enough; Many times it feels as if some authors have not interacted with an actual human child in their own recent memory, because they speak in ways kids don’t speak, […]

Nostalgia. And My Favorite Cat.

Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody

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Obernewtyn, by Australian author Isobelle Carmody, is the first book in what was originally meant to be a five part series. However, this original plan didn’t quite pan out and The Obernewtyn Chronicles ended up pulling the same kind of seam-splitting expansion that would later be codified in popular culture by The Song of Ice and Fire by growing to a total of seven books. Which were published across nearly thirty years*. The series itself is as old as I am.  I’ve always had a […]

A Winter’s Tale from the Rivers of London

Winter's Gift by Ben Aaronovitch

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Winter’s Gift is the most recent novella in the ongoing River’s of London series by Ben Aaronovitch and the subject actually came as a surprise to me when I got the book. When you have a character in the series called Tobias Winter (a German police officer) then an assumption that this is one of his books seemed logical, instead this is set in the US and features FBI agent Kimberley Reynolds. Rewinding for a Rivers of London recap: magic is real, gods exist and […]

Like Pretty Woman in a tropical setting

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

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CBR Bingo – Rings. Marriage. Caution: Spoilers. Anna Green and Liam “West” Weston were divorced and went their separate ways after they finished their studies at UCLA. Their sham marriage was just so they could get inexpensive housing on campus. Three years later, Anna finds herself with a fine arts degree, jobless, no prospects to sell her art, and saddled under her dad’s medical bills. She gets a surprise visit from West, the handsome, extremely wealthy heir apparent to the Weston Foods supermarket chain. West […]

“Dreams, they’re for those who sleep”

The Virgin Suicides (1993) by Jeffrey Eugenides

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Content note: The novel contains graphic death scenes and deals with suicide extensively. This review also discusses suicide  and death quite briefly. Bingo square: Earth day: the novel deals with pollution and decay and environmental ruin I was by way of being a movie buff for a while in the early 2000s (which is how I found Pajiba), and I watched Sofia Coppola’s 1999 adaptation of The Virgin Suicides then, and read the book afterwards. I think it was that way around–I remember being surprised […]



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