Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

more historical fiction to round out the day

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

by 1 Comment

A recommendation from Vidhya, from her book club! First off, I definitely thought this was a book that was going to hop between 1789 and 1989 or something like that, so kept waiting for the flash forward? It does not, in case you also have this mistaken allusion. This is however a great work of inspired historical fiction based off the life of a truly astounding midwife in the 1700s who delivered over 1,000 babies and never lost a mother. Possibly because she is forever […]

Between the Freeze and the Thaw

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

by Leave a Comment

When midwife Martha Ballard is called to inspect the body of a man found frozen in the Kennebec River, the last person she expects it to be is the accused rapist of one of her patients – and when she determines that he has been murdered, the situation only becomes more complex. I first heard about Martha Ballard a few months ago, when I picked up the Pulitzer Prize-winning book based on her life (A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her […]

Many flavors of Did Not Finish

The Disasters by M.K. England

Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood by Rose George

Above the Bay of Angels by Rhys Bowen

Badge of the Bone Ritual: A Humorous Occult Crime Novel featuring Detective Scotty C., Book One by Archer Hay

by 6 Comments

The Disasters By M.K. England Nax Hall is kicked out of the Ellis Station Academy less than 24 hours of his arrival. All he’s ever wanted is to be a pilot, but now he’s on a shuttle back to Earth. Joining him are three other washouts, Rion, Case, and Zee. Just as they are about to leave, the station is attacked. The disasters manage to escape, but learn that they’ve been framed for the attack on the station. They must find the real culprits and clear […]

Two flavors of Did Not Finish

Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon

The Disasters by M.K. England

by 2 Comments

Code Name Helene This book is based on the life of Australian reporter Nancy Wake, who worked as a British spy during World War II. The novel switches between her life aiding the Resistance in 1944 and when she met her husband 8 years earlier.  Real talk, I downloaded this early one morning before I was fully awake and then promptly forgot I had it. I was surprised and pleased when I discovered it on my tablet later that day. I absolutely loved the Alice […]

Great topic, not a great book.

I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon

by Leave a Comment

The surefire way to guarantee that I will buy a book: have it be about the Romanovs. I’m completely obsessed, and am always looking for additions to the shelf that I have dedicated to them (non-fiction, fiction, conspiracy theories, etc). So when I saw this on the Costco book table, it went into my cart with no second thought. The story of the Romanovs is well-known – in 1918 Lenin orders the Imperial family to be executed by firing squad, including the children. The official […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo