Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“How do we even begin to understand that there’s more than what we can see?”

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

by Leave a Comment

I had high hopes for this one, based on my love of The House in the Cerulean Sea. That book was so pure and good, much like a Becky Chambers novel. It was sweet and funny and romantic, with plot that moved at a perfect pace. The love story at the heart of that novel felt so true, it was impossible not to root for. Those charming children, so inventive, earned each of their character arcs. It was wholesome without being syrupy. This is the genius […]

“Sometimes reality comes crashing down on you. Other times reality simply waits, patiently, for you to run out of the energy it takes to deny it.”

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

by Leave a Comment

The first Taylor Jenkins Reid book I consumed was Daisy Jones and the Six, as nudged by the Reese Witherspoon book club. I listened to the audio, and it was an amazing ride: with a star-studded cast (Judy Greer! Benjamin Bratt!). It felt like listening to an episode of Vh1 Behind the Music, and I greedily lapped up every second of it. My next TJR was Carrie Soto is Back, her latest book, published in 2022. This time around, Carrie Soto is the retired GOAT […]

Two Books, One Author: An Eleanor Catton Review

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

by Leave a Comment

I read good things about Birnam Wood, and so I put it on my library queue – and realized I had not read her earlier, Booker-winning novel, The Luminaries. I put both on my queue, and both arrived near-ish to each other. Both were ALSO nearly (and now just slightly) about to be overdue at the same time, so I read them back-to-back, in order to return them without too much strain on the library borrowing system.  Despite the fact that these are very different books, I […]

Moms and Sequels

Busy Betty & the Circus Surprise  by Reese Witherspoon

Because I'm Your Mom by Ahmet Zappa

by Leave a Comment

Many times, a sequel does not live up to the first one. And tht is true in movies and books. However, these sequels are good follow ups and stand alone. And while I have not read the prequel to Ahmet Zappa’s reviewed book, I am sure it is similar and does justice to it. Also, both of these books focus on moms and with Mothers Day coming up, you might want to give them a look-see (though the Busy Betty and the Circus Surprises is not […]

Two communities diverged, but come together in the woods

In the Dark by Kate Hoefler

by Leave a Comment

One of the interesting pieces of In the Dark is that it is not what it seems. And once you go farther into Kate Hoefler’s book than the cover you see that. The idea is that two voices are saying how “bad” the other is, due to their differences and the lack of knowledge by the other party. But if you watch closely, you see that things are not always dark, especially with the forest, which we are told the “witches” live. And as we […]

Be all you can be

I Can Be All Three by  Salima Alikhan

by Leave a Comment

This is a simple, but powerful story of how one child has many parts to her. Three in fact (which is why the title is I Can Be All Three). The first part is her father and his Indian heritage, the second her mother’s German heritage and finally the third is her school and growing up American parts. But when her classroom assignment is to pick something that represents you and your culture for the Multicultural Day celebration, she is unsure how to choose. After […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo