Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Instagram
  3. Follow us on Bluesky
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • Getting Started in CBR18
    • Rules of Respect
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
    • About Cannonball Read
  • Our Team
    • The CBR Team
    • Leaderboard
    • Recent Comments
    • Participant Interviews
    • Cannonballer Location Maps
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
    • Star Ratings
    • Featured Review Archive
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • Donate
    • CBR Merchandise
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • 2026 Registration
    • Suggest a Review
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Social Media

Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

“But I do think that when we choose the easy path, where people or society reward us for being what they want us to be, against who we really are, a kind of death occurs. To the soul.”

November 6, 2018 by Caitlin_D Leave a Comment

I read Openly Straight last year and, while I thought the premise of going back into the closet strange, I loved the relationship between Rafe and Ben. Honestly Ben picks up right where Openly Straight ends with Ben is questioning things after he hooks up with Rafe. Ben has discovered Rafe knows he is homosexual and wasn’t just experimenting like Ben was which sends him into a bit of a tailspin. After winter break Ben discovers he was awarded the highly prestigious Pappas Award, complete with a much needed scholarship, and […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: Bill Konigsberg, Honestly ben

Caitlin_D's CBR10 Review No:114 · Genres: Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: Bill Konigsberg, Honestly ben ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

“Straight people have it so much easier. They don’t understand. They can’t. There’s no such thing as openly straight.”

June 9, 2017 by Caitlin_D Leave a Comment

Badkittyuno raved about Openly Straight and its sequel Honestly Ben so, despite my old age and the crotchety nature in which I reacted to the last YA novel I read, I picked it up from the library. It was definitely better than The Upside of Unrequited with slightly more believable, fleshed out main characters. Claire Olivia is a bit of a manic pixie dream girl but she is a minor character, and not a love interest, so I’ll let that slide. Rafe was openly gay in liberal Boulder, Colorado but chooses […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: Bill Konigsberg, Openly straight

Caitlin_D's CBR9 Review No:64 · Genres: Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: Bill Konigsberg, Openly straight ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

A kissing book & some young adult fiction

May 25, 2017 by badkittyuno Leave a Comment

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne 3 stars I don’t normally read romances, with the exception of my beloved Outlanders, but y’all recommended Kulti and I really liked that, so I thought I’d give this other highly rated one a shot. I didn’t love it, but it was cute. I listened to the audio version, and hearing the name “Joshua Templeton” repeated over and over varied from obnoxious to over the top hysterical, depending on my mood. I liked Lucy, but I have trouble getting behind the whole “I’ve loved you all along which […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Romance, Young Adult Tagged With: badkittyuno, becky albertalli, Bill Konigsberg, liz moore, sally thorne

badkittyuno's CBR9 Review No:128 · Genres: Fiction, Romance, Young Adult · Tags: badkittyuno, becky albertalli, Bill Konigsberg, liz moore, sally thorne ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

I wanted to love this. But I just couldn’t bring myself past feeling lukewarm.

April 17, 2017 by scootsa1000 1 Comment

This book was practically a sure thing for me. It has an adorable little porcupine on the cover. I can’t resist! I mean, LOOK AT HOW CUTE THAT IS. It also has a blurb from my Cannonball boyfriend, Andrew Smith. Just reading the words ANDREW SMITH is like catnip to me. Seriously, I was destined to love this book. But I just didn’t. And I don’t really get why. Carson is uprooted from his life in NYC for a summer in Billings, Montana, against his will. His father (who abandoned him […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: Andrew Smith, Bill Konigsberg, cbr9, Scootsa1000, The Porcupine of Truth

scootsa1000's CBR9 Review No:24 · Genres: Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: Andrew Smith, Bill Konigsberg, cbr9, Scootsa1000, The Porcupine of Truth ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

Andrew Smith & A.S. King lovers should try this one

April 5, 2017 by badkittyuno 2 Comments

More YA! Are you sick of me yet? I have 2 more reviews to post after this and then I promise to leave y’all alone. This is what happens when I bring six books on vacation and read every one of them… “To me, religion is the Walmart of spirituality … I mean it’s prepackaged. Lowest common denominator. People just have to follow the present motions and rituals and rules. The don’t have to think about how the words reconcile with their own hearts. Their […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: badkittyuno, Bill Konigsberg

badkittyuno's CBR9 Review No:90 · Genres: Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: badkittyuno, Bill Konigsberg ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments


Recent Comments

  • narfna
    on “You can be the most virtuous woman in the world and you’ll still carry the blame, not just for your desire but for everyone’s desire.”
    I still can't get over the way she described lasagna. I'm so glad you loved this!!
  • Malin
    on Ten Years Gone
    I was very pleasantly surprised by the first book, which I hadn't really expected to like much. I hated the...
  • wicherwill
    on Ten Years Gone
    I have this on hold, I've skimmed the review out of extreme spoiler aversion but will come back after!
  • wicherwill
    on “Praise then darkness and creation unfinished”
    every time someone tries to tell me that scifi was invented recently (or, I suppose, perfected recently) I want to...
  • wicherwill
    on World of the White Rat: A Kingfisher-palooza or An Embarrassment of Paladins
    I just got a friend who's struggled for ages to find something that sparks into Clocktaur, so Yes to coining...
See More Recent Comments »

Support Our Mission

  • Support Our Mission, Donate Today!
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo

The reviews and comments posted on this site reflect the opinions of individual posters and do not reflect the views of Cannonball Read.

© 2026 Cannonball Read Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) | Log in