Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Well, It Helped the Airplane Ride

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

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Bingo: Summer. This book takes place at a summer getaway by a lake. I am terrified of flying. Having to fly to New York from my home in San Francisco, I brought along a stuffed pug (plush, not taxidermic) and The House Across the Lake to distract myself. The pug did its job as did the book, as ludicrous as it was. Casey is an alcoholic actress whose drinking caused a scandal. She took to drink after her husband Len drowned in Lake Greene. Now […]

More Adventures with the Kids Who Had the Best Childhood Ever.

Pigeon Post by Arthur Ransome

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cbr18bingo Birds Another from the Sparrows and Amazons series and it’s just what the doctor ordered.  Like sinking into a cozy armchair with a steaming cup of tea at your side.  So this time the crew is set off on holidays to explore High Topps, a large mountain not far from their lakeside homes.  Rumor has it that there is gold in them there hills, and they are aiming to produce a sample before Uncle Jim returns to his houseboat.  This will involve much camping […]

This Guy Doesn’t Want to Rule the World, But He Will

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

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This book fills the CBR18 Bingo square “versus,” in the sense of “person versus society.” Or, in this case, “half-goblin versus society of pure-blood elves.” Maia is the half-goblin in question. He’s in line for the imperial throne, but VERY far down. Like, so far down, the emperor has him living way out in the middle of nowhere. So far down that the only way Maia could possibly become emperor is if the entire lineage were to die in an airship crash, which, pffbt, never […]

I paid for it… kinda

Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman

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CBR18 Bingo – Steal: When I saw the bingo card, I thought it would be funny if I reviewed Steal This Book. Then I realized I never read it. So I did. To be clear, the book does explicitly endorse stealing. To steal from a brother or sister is evil. To not steal from the institutions that are the pillars of the Pig Empire is equally immoral. Steal This Book was written by Abbie Hoffman, with co-conspirator Izak Haber and Bert Cohen as accessory after […]

Red for Murder

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

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When She Woke, by Hillary Jordan, is a work of speculative fiction, that I imagine feels far less speculative today than when it was published in 2011. The author doesn’t specify the year of our Lord in which this novel takes place, but it’s definitely in the future. Los Angeles has been nuked to filth. There are water wars in Northern Africa. There are “National Identity Cards” which allow the government to monitor and track citizenry. And there was a “superclap” pandemic which did nothing […]

Mom? Have You Written Your Book Yet?

The Long Song by Andrea Levy

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bcr18bingo Justice Having just read a novel set in 18th century Haiti, it was curious to see the differences between Island Beneath the Sea, Isabel Allende, and this one.  Set in Jamaica instead, the settlers and plantation owners are British rather than French, a far more homogeneous upper class, and this tale is also on a much smaller scale.  Not to mention that it is in some ways a more light-hearted tale, albeit not without the occasional brutal scenes that are part of any portrayal […]



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