Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Ok, ok, I’m biased, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t one awesome book!

The Little Stone Buddha by Grace Lin

by Leave a Comment

Like many readers, I keep journals filled with the titles I read. But I don’t always have it with me (like at work) so I email myself the information with the Subject Line: I Read This; to mark the book later.  In my odd little shorthand, I know what I read (I have a memory like Swiss Cheese some days),  but it never says what I really feel about the book.  Yes, I Read This book called  The Little Stone Buddha by Grace Lin, but […]

I’m posting the reviews in the order I read them 2

Kodi Book 1 by Jared Cullum

by Leave a Comment

Having read the Kodi by Jared Cullum books out of order, I wasn’t grasping everything I needed in book two and assumed book one was going to be more of the same adventure, themed story as Kodi: A Place to Call Home (book two) was. However, this one is a lot more sweet, simple and quick to read. I don’t think I would have wanted to read book two if I had read this first. With that said, ages 8 and up will devour both […]

Dead Birds Can’t Fly

An Evening with Claire by Gaito Gazdanov

by Leave a Comment

This is a good book, in the sense that it is honest. But don’t be fooled by the cover! It is no delicate romance — and Claire hardly figures. In An Evening with Claire (1929), Gaito Gazdanov drags the reader through the emotional swamp of emigré estrangement, through a barely-disguised “Kolya.” Like Gazdanov, Kolya joins the ill-fated White Army in the 1910s, seemingly on a whim, after a largely apolitical and lonely childhood. Over the course of a few years, he drifts to the edges […]

Nothing’s fair in love and war

Buckeye: A Novel by Patrick Ryan

by Leave a Comment

About a hundred pages into this book, I considered DNF’ing it. The characters didn’t interest me much and the small town America setting bored me. But then things started to get interesting — new characters, intrigue, trauma and secrets. This is a story of multiple generations of families in a small town in mid-20th-century Ohio and of the pains inflicted/secrets withheld that could tear them apart. The main families involved in Buckeye are the Jenkinses and the Salts. Cal and Becky Jenkins are natives to […]

Actions Have Consequences and Ripple Out

Bring The House Down by Charlotte Runcie

by Leave a Comment

Rating: 4 Stars In a nutshell: Sophie and Alex are sent to Edinburgh Fringe for a month to write reviews of shows and exhibitions. After Alex writes a scathing review on night one, then sleeps with the star without telling her, things transpire. Best for: I think this is meant to be a sort of quick read (and it was) but it also deals with some pretty serious issues. And I’m not sure the blurb on the back is as accurate as it could be… […]

The Witch by Fredia McFadden

The Witch by Fredia McFadden

by 4 Comments

I really have to stop hoping that McFadden gets back to The Housemaid success in terms of her writing. I find myself so bored with her latter works. And now there is a blurb in the front that we won’t read about sex and other things since she wants her family to be able to read the books. Maybe that’s where things have gone wrong. This was boring from beginning to end and honestly just huge plot holes abound (per usual). Not much to say […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo