I will confess that I have a mild aversion to poetry. I am wary that any poetry event could turn into a Vogon Poetry reading*. I was reminded that April is National Poetry Month, so I went looking for Cannonballer’s reviews about poetry. When I read Siege’s review of A Book of Luminous Things by Czesław Miłosz, I was intrigued by what poem could have motivated her to read a whole anthology of poetry. Maybe she will tell us, or maybe she doesn’t want to […]
CBR Diversions – In Praise of Difficult Women
For International Women’s Day, we are celebrating our favorite “difficult” women in books. I love reading about women who live their lives the way they want to live them, whether we call them strong, difficult, or even unlikable. It’s one of the reasons I read so much romance, it’s a genre where difficult women are rewarded with love and success. I asked four Cannonballers to share some of their favorite difficult women, fictional and real, from books. Teresalectro sings the praises of Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan: […]
CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy Childhood
In May, the CannonBookClub will discuss books that take us back to childhood. That might mean a favorite book from your childhood, or a more recent book that you wish you had read as a child. As a child and early teen, I loved books where virtuous people suffered virtuously until they were rewarded at the end. How very Victorian! Fortunately, I’ve grown past that and I’m not terribly interested in revisiting the books of my childhood. I am, however, delighted and slightly jealous of […]
CBR Diversions – Literary Couples That Make You Swoon
With Valentine’s Day swiftly approaching, romance is in the air. To complement our featured romance book reviews, this week’s CBR Diversion celebrates our favorite literary couples. Who makes you swoon? I know many of you are historical romance fans who love a reformed rake who meets his match. Daphne and Simon have become quite popular in the zeitgeist after the Netflix adaption of Julia Quinn’s The Duke and I premiered. Personally, I’m a sucker for the slow burn courtship in urban fantasy series. In the […]
CBR Diversions – Whale Hello There!
Welcome to January 2021! What a year the last two weeks have been. Four years ago I wrote a post in which seasoned Cannonballers gave advice to new Cannonballers. I hope it helped a few people, and it’s all still good stuff. This year we thought we would start off with a chance for new folks and veterans to introduce yourselves, tell us what you are looking forward to reading, and ask any questions about Cannonball Read that come to mind. In that vein, there […]