Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Goblins, Elves and Diplomacy

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by MT Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

by 2 Comments

How to describe The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge? According to writer MT Anderson it’s “…a tragic meditation on how societies that have been trained to hate each other for generations can actually come to see eye to eye.” But is it?  According to illustrator Eugene Yelchin, “A crazy story about two fools blinded by propaganda is not a tragedy. It’s a comedy.” Who’s correct? Well, both are. This National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature is a story of political intrigue and espionage, and […]

Love me some historical messy bishes

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

by 4 Comments

Are you one of those people who likes to read the book before seeing the movie?  I am.  So when I found out (around 3-4 years late) that there was a White Queen mini-series, I was excited to jump in.  I had also just lost my job and I was really looking for a book to serve as a screen saver for the brain; something that would entertain me but wouldn’t test me.  A historical family drama definitely hit the spot. Philippa Gregory’s collected works […]

The Americas Deserved Better Than Guns, Germs, and Steel

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann

by 6 Comments

After watching John Leguizamo’s Netflix special Latin History for Morons, I felt a duty to learn more about the Hemisphere in which I live. I started with Mr. Leguizamo’s strongest recommendation: 1491, a 560-page tome with multiple appendices. The author isn’t a historian or archaeologist but a journalist who synthesizes all manner of information and makes it accessible.  The result is so compelling, so dense and riddled with shocks big and small that I suspended my usual speed-reading. Unexamined assumptions that I wasn’t even aware […]

I’ve read this story before, and so have you (but it’s still pretty great)

Normal People by Sally Rooney

by 3 Comments

For years, being a (now recovering) literary fiction snob with a preference for British Commonwealth authors, I’ve followed the Man Booker Prize long- and shortlists as a way to find new books, and since I still need a regular fix of literary fiction even as I explore new genres, I’ve started to look to other prizes to expand my library. With Sally Rooney’s Normal People appearing on the Booker longlist and winning the Costa Novel Award, it was an obvious choice, especially as I continue […]

My first review of the year!

Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen

by 7 Comments

3.5 stars Rebecca “Becca” Rowley has worked for tech billionaire Nate Kattenberger for more than seven years. She managed his office while he and a few friends were still an optimistic start up. For the last few years, she’s gone from being his personal assistant to managing the hockey team he bought, the Brooklyn Bruisers. Foolishly walking onto the ice to personally deliver a message, Rebecca falls and gets a concussion. Several weeks later, she’s still not well and fretting terribly about her inability to […]

Best read with a pint of IPA and a Rolling Stones record on the turntable.

In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin

by 1 Comment

I’ll start this review by saying I am a massive fan of Ian Rankin, especially his John Rebus series of books. So basically, he could write up Rebus’ shopping list, and I’d probably give it a 5 Star review. Just so you know. There have been at least 20 books about John Rebus and his adventures in the Edinburgh  police department. And this was the first one that wasn’t really about John Rebus that much. Yes, he was in it, and yes, he played a […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo