Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Life was very different when you walked through it.”

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

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CBR17 Bingo: Green – Behold, the cover! Recently-retired Harold receives a note from his friend Queenie, who he has not seen in twenty years, to inform him that she is dying, and sets out to walk the length of England to go and see her, in the belief that as long as he walks she will not die. This is a pilgrimage across England, but internally it is also a pilgrimage of Harold’s self, in which he comes to terms with the many things that […]

Okay… I am reading volume 2…

Grand Slam Romance Volume 1 by Ollie Hicks, Emma Oosterhous

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cbr17bingo PLAY  Grand Slam Romance Volume 1 by Ollie Hicks, Emma Oosterhous (Illustrator), and Wren Rios (Flatter) Where is this world of only lesbians and queer presenting people? While things are not “harping” on the queer elements, there is no question that the majority of the characters (there is one heteronormal male-presenting character) are queer. Gender also gets time up as they might want to be called a Femme Daddy, or He is a bada$$, but they are all putting the X in StriXe! Yet, […]

“In fact it’s the very reason I root for us to survive – because we are so stupid about each other.”

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

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Sally Rooney is a divisive figure. It’s easy to put down her work as self-involved millennial bullshit. It’s equally easy to paint her detractors as oblivious neoliths. Still, I feel that the most common criticism levelled at her work is also precisely the point.  Beautiful World, Where Are You is about Alice and Eileen, two thirty-ish university friends who lead very different lives. Alice is a successful novelist; she has published two books and travels the world doing interviews. Eileen, intelligent and once promising, works […]

Sweeter and lighter than I was expecting

If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura

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CBR 17 BINGO: “I” (for “If”) Translated from the Japanese by Eric Selland A young Japanese postman learns he has a terminal illness and has very little time left to live (months? weeks?). Estranged from his father, the postman lives alone with his cat Cabbage and can’t even come up with a decent bucket list to tackle in his remaining time on Earth. He’s feeling sort of pathetic when the devil appears to him with a bad news/good news scenario: If what the devil says […]

“I once thought opportunities were ever arising, but now, older, I realize how thinly the door to destiny opens, how quickly it shuts.”

Every Rising Sun by Jamila Ahmed

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CBR17 Bingo: Arts – Shaherazade is a storyteller, and her weaving and telling of tales is her chief pleasure and weapon throughout the story. When Shaherazade anonymously informs the Malik Shahriyar of his wife’s infidelity, she never imagines the madness – and the murders – to follow. Desperate to save the kingdom and Shahriyar himself, she nominates herself to be his bride, gambling her life on her storytelling. But between the ongoing Crusades and political tensions with neighboring kingdoms, Shaherazade may have bitten off more […]

This novel could have been an embroidered pillow (and also a rant about unnecessary italics)

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

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CBR 17 BINGO: Rec’d as I’ve seen this book recommended by a number of Goodreads reviews. I should have known on page 2 of this novel that I wasn’t going to enjoy it, because in that brief span of time the author had already italicized three words for emphasis. You may think that’s petty of me, but hold that thought–I’ll get back to it. The premise of The Measure is this: One spring day, everyone over the age of 22 wakes up to find a […]



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