Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Exploring the Newgate State Prison and Copper Mine: Connecticut’s Most Interesting Tourist Attraction

Newgate: From Copper Mine to State Prison by William G. Domonell

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CBR15Bingo: Edibles (what these poor men had to eat was truly horrific, despite the tour guide trying to tell us they ate well — the explanatory board on the grounds of the prison and this book both say the men had to eat pickled pork that the guards would throw on the ground and then the prisoners would have to boil it in the water from the forge). This is a brief volume explaining the history behind the historic Newgate Prison and Copper Mine, which […]

What it Means to be My Favourite Alien

Translation State by Ann Leckie

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Have you ever experienced so much anticipation for a book that it you nearly squealed in glee? This is me with Ann Leckie’s Translation State. If Translation State had just been a sequel to her Imperial Radch Trilogy, it would still have been intriguing enough to check out. But Translation State is not just a follow-up to the Radch books—it’s a book that heavily features the Presgr Translators! To keep things vague for anyone who hasn’t yet read the Radch books (and you should), the […]

Epic fantasy inspired by the Pre-Columbian Americas

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

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CBR15 Bingo: On the Road – For two main characters about 80% of the book is them travelling. Bingo! The lands surrounding the Crescent Sea are ruled from the distant, northern city of Tova and the religious order of the Watchers.  The power of the Watchers has been waning and now that a commoner, Naranpa, has the highest role of Sun Priest there is dissent in the order and city.  Tova itself is broken into four districts each ruled by a different clan: Tsay (Golden […]

Fairy Tales Can Be Deadly

The Last Tale of The Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

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This book is the very definition of the word Gothic. It belongs on the shelves next to Jane Eyre and Rebecca.  As in Rebecca, the main character in the novel isn’t given a name. He is just referred to as The Bridegroom. The Bridegroom is a curator of myths, legends, and fairy tales. While tracking down a rare book, he encounters Indigo Maxwell-Castenada, an heiress to a massive fortune, and a woman obsessed with fairy tales. They get married rather quickly, and she makes him […]

“their houses would have wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors so that Esteban’s memory could go everywhere without bumping into beams”

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa (Translator)

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I have been circling Gabriel García Márquez for decades, almost too afraid to approach his work at all. On and off the reading lists his works go, a constant pendulum of my ambition or lack thereof. When staring at our Bingo squares and realizing a few short stories and novellas were likely to help my progress I went on the hunt for a few and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel García Márquez came up. Here we go, I thought – here’s […]

CBRBINGO – ADULTHOOD: “For this scribe has read a great many of these accounts and taken away another lesson: that to be a woman is to have your story misremembered.”

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

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I loved this! I’m so glad I loved it, also, because I own two copies of it and I don’t want to get rid of either one. They are PRETTY. The American cover I love so much, I want a poster-sized print of it for my wall. And my other edition has a beautiful gilded map on the endpapers with Amina and Payasam on either end, and little ships and sea beasts sprayed on the edges. I would have CRIED had I not loved this […]



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