Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Who cared about sex, really? When what you needed was someone to talk to in the dark.” CBR BINGO – Smash (Cannonball!)

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

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“There is a desperation to a novel that is unsettling. The world so painstakingly re-created in miniature; this tiny diorama made of words. Why go to all this trouble, to create me, to seduce you, to enumerate so many different breakfast cereals? To make the cunning tiny apartment, the itsy-bitsy Jinx? It’s like going to meet your new boyfriend’s family for the first time and discovering they are all paid actors. It’s almost easier to believe I’m real than to understand what’s actually going on. […]

Frankenstein but plants and gay!

A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock

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I saw a reel on Instagram from the author talking about this book, and I was immediately sold. Frankenstein? Queer? Messy, messy characters? Sign me up! And this absolutely delivers on all fronts. The beginning of A Botanical Daughter is a little slow, but it perfectly sets the scene of Grimfern, an estate inside a greenhouse outside the closest village, and the three main characters – Gregor, botanist and lord of Grimfern; Simon, taxidermist and romantic partner to Gregor; and Jenny, local village girl whose […]

An important book that you’ve probably never heard of

How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino

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Cbr16bingo Vintage  This book, published in Japan in 1937, is a classic of Japanese literature and served as the inspiration for the Hayao Miyazaki film “The Boy and The Heron”. This translation by Bruno Navasky is the first time How Do You Live? has been translated into English, and it features an introduction by Neil Gaiman. Genzaburo Yoshino was born in 1899 and earned a degree in philosophy from Tokyo Imperial University. The Japan of his youth was becoming increasingly militaristic and even had “thought […]

Could Have Used More Tigers.

Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann

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cbr16bingo scandal I was very much predisposed to like this sort of book.  I am a sucker for those mid-century (or earlier) tales of well-to-do families packing up to head out to Cape Cod for the summer; women, children, and the occasional servant, while father stays on in the City, and only comes out for the weekend.  The house is, of course, some eccentric pile of lumber that has been in the family for generations and is known, needless to say, as the Summer Cottage.  […]

Two Star Romance Roundup

Trust (London Love Book #5) by Sophia Soames

You Can Count on Me (Christmas Daddies Book 2) by Fae Quin

Not All Himbos Wear Capes (Villainous Things Book 1) by C. Rochelle

Omega on the Run (Bangers & Mash Book 5) by M.M. Farmer

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CBR16 Bingo: Liberate Characters in the books are seeking liberation from their past mistakes, their families, their fears, or their obligations. Trust (London Love Book #5) By Sophia Soames Reuben has a steady job and is well-liked by his colleagues. He works as a doorman, along with his father and his cousins, at the Westminster Clouds hotel. After a rough adolescence, he is grateful to have a stable home and job, and he owes it to his father. Still, he wishes he could break out […]

High school cliques and murder 25 years later

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

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I Have Some Questions For You (2023) by Rebecca Makkai is my second book by Makkai. My first one was The Great Believers which centers around the AIDS crisis in 1980’s Chicago. I hadn’t known what to expect, but I was blown away by the story and the characters. I don’t now how Makkai does it, but she makes me feel what the characters are feeling in a real, visceral way. I Have Some Questions For You is a very different story, but Makkai managed the same effect. Perhaps I naturally relate […]



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