Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I must make up my mind which is right – society or I”

Et dukkehjem (A Doll's House) by Henrik Ibsen

by Leave a Comment

I don’t know if a spoiler warning for a nearly 150-year-old play is necessary – but I will be revealing significant plot points when writing about this historical drama, so if you want to remain unspoiled, go read the play (it’s only three acts, it’s a relatively quick read) or watch a dramatisation, and come back when you’re done. Nora and Torvald Helmer are a middle-class couple living in Christiania (what Oslo was named for a few centuries in the before times) in the late […]

Break your silence if you would/before the sun goes down for good

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

by 2 Comments

It’s 1982, and small-town Viv has big-city ambitions. Mostly, she just wants to get out of the town where she has lived all her life; she has a vague ambition to move to New York and become an actress, so off she goes in spite of her mother’s protestations. One dodgy hitchhiker later and she ends up at the Sun Down Motel, a run down establishment in the town of Fell, New York. The hotel manager offers her free board in exchange for running the […]

“Like eating very expensive chocolate, savouring every moment because you don’t know when you’ll have it again.”

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

by 4 Comments

Luc O’Donnell is the son of two rockstar parents: his mother is a French-Irish (but mostly French) folk singer, his father a legendary rock star who has been absent from Luc’s life since he was a toddler. Luc is, to put it mildly, a mess: when we meet him, he is trying and failing to make out with a guy who turns out to be a Buzzfeed reporter. After the terse encounter ends, Luc flees the club, faceplants outside on the kerb and is promptly […]

Batman: Haunted Knight by Jeph Loeb, Doug Moench, Tim Sale

by Leave a Comment

This is one of those books I used to get over and over from the library back home. I remember picking it up on a whim, and the first full page shot of Scarecrow hooking me. Then I remember trying to be a cool kid and pretending I’m too cool for Batman, yet in spite of that the character designs and images stuck with me for years, until I finally bought a copy and revisited it. It mostly holds up! Haunted Knight is a collection […]

https://cannonballread.com/2025/03/batman-haunted-knight-jmsudar/

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold-Hearted

Pale Gray for Guilt by John D. Macdonald

by Leave a Comment

Travis McGee was surprised to find his old football teammate stressed and gloomy on his first visit in many years. McGee suspects unhappiness in marriage, but really the cause of the problem is financial in origin. Business at Bannon’s marina hotel has been in steep decline since the county shut down the nearest highway. Bannon’s wife, Janine, suggest cutting their losses and selling, but the only offer is suspiciously low and just happens to be coming from a relative of one of the county commissioners. […]

I am Batman…. ?

The Night Defenders by Danielle K. Herker

by Leave a Comment

The internet can be a fun and interesting place. I belong to a group on Facebook that is bat related. Mostly there are cute bat pictures, or someone showing a bat item they have or found. Once or twice we even get news about bats. (Mostly it is adorable bat pictures.)  One day a member posted about her book The Night Defenders. Danielle K. Herker told us the Evil Empire was selling it. And since I was curious about it, I did a little research […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo