contemporary fiction

#CBR10Bingo: So Popular! – Revisiting a favourite (Bingo #9 and #10)

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

November 28, 2018 by Malin Leave a Comment

#CBR10Bingo: So Popular! This is my second re-read of Attachments. I first read it back in 2011, and my original review can be found here. Considering how much I loved the book back then (and still do), it’s a fairly short and unenthusiastic review. But it’ll give you the basics of what the book is about. When it came to selecting a book for the “So popular!” square, all ten choices (among the most reviewed books of the ten years on the Cannonball blog) were ones I’d already read at least once. Some, like Divergent, The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl, I really just didn’t feel […]

11/28/2018 Malin's CBR10 Review No:103 |

#CBR10Bingo: Home, Something, Home (double Bingo!)

Tante Ulrikkes vei by Zeshan Shakar

November 21, 2018 by Malin Leave a Comment

#CBR10Bingo: Home, Something, Home (this book is set at Stovner in Oslo, three stops away from where I live on the metro. It also concerns exactly the sort of pupils that I teach.) Two youths, both living in the same tower block in a suburb on the east side of Oslo, in Stovner (where the large majority of inhabitants are immigrants or the children of immigrants). They start out going to the same high school. Starting in the year 2000, the framing device consists of these two teenagers, later young men, being asked to take part in a social studies survey, […]

11/21/2018 Malin's CBR10 Review No:99 |

#CBR10Bingo: Fahrenheit 451 – The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

October 29, 2018 by Malin Leave a Comment

#CBR10Bingo: Fahrenheit 451 (one of the ten most banned or challenged books in 2017) Starr feels like she’s living two lives, and in a way she is. She goes to a prestigious private school along with her siblings, where they are among the only black students. She has a white boyfriend, who calls her “Fresh Princess”, thinking she’s a bit like Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. She lives in a poor and rough neighbourhood, where drug dealing and gun violence isn’t unusual. Her black friends wonder if she thinks she’s too good for them. Starr’s father spent much […]

10/29/2018 Malin's CBR10 Review No:92 |

The book was absolutely NOT better

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

October 22, 2018 by Malin Leave a Comment

#CBR10Bingo: The Book was Better? Spoiler Warning! This has already been reviewed a ton of times – there will be some vague spoilers, but nothing that should ruin the film or the book for anyone. Rachel Chu is an economics professor in New York. Her boyfriend of two years, Nick Young, a history professor at the same university, invites her to go to Asia with him for the summer, to attend his best friend’s wedding. Rachel has no idea that Nick’s family is one of the wealthiest and most influential in Singapore and that most of his family, friends and acquaintances are […]

10/22/2018 Malin's CBR10 Review No:90 |

“There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t”

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

September 13, 2018 by Malin Leave a Comment

Aza Holmes doesn’t have a lot of friends, and her best friend Daisy, a gregarious and outgoing fan fiction writer, sometimes finds her a bit exhausting. This is not surprising, as Aza struggles with anxiety and OCD. When local billionaire Russell Davis Picket goes missing and there is a reward offered for news of his whereabouts, Daisy remembers that Aza knows his son. Daisy orchestrates a scenario so that Aza can reconnect with Davis, who she hasn’t seen for a few years. Aza and Davis met at a camp for children who’d lost parents. Aza’s father died, as did Davis’ […]

9/13/2018 Malin's CBR10 Review No:79 |

“Sometimes we get it wrong the first time. But you only have to get it right once.”

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

August 24, 2018 by Malin Leave a Comment

#CBR10Bingo: Brain Candy A year ago, Paige’s boyfriend died in a tragic drowning accident, and she is still suffering from nightmares and is known around town as “the girl whose boyfriend died”. She hasn’t been able to even get near a pool since it happened. It seems like everywhere she goes, she gets “the look” of people who don’t really see her, but just associate her with the dead boy she’d dated for two months before his life was tragically cut short. Determined that she needs to move on and reclaim her life, Paige makes a list of tasks to […]

8/24/2018 Malin's CBR10 Review No:63 |

It’s hard to become homecoming queen when you can’t even leave your house

Love and Other Alien Experiences by Kerry Winfrey

August 24, 2018 by Malin Leave a Comment

From Goodreads, as I’m once again reviewing books from over a month ago: Mallory hasn’t left the house in sixty-seven days–since the day her dad left. She attends her classes via webcam, rarely leaves her room (much to her brother’s chagrin), and spends most of her time watching The X-Files or chatting with the always obnoxious BeamMeUp on New Mexico’s premier alien message board. But when she’s shockingly nominated for homecoming queen, her life takes a surprising turn. She slowly begins to open up to the world outside. And maybe if she can get her popular jock neighbor Brad Kirkpatrick to be her homecoming […]

8/24/2018 Malin's CBR10 Review No:62 |

Roadtrip of grief

Someone Else's Summer by Rachel Bateman

August 17, 2018 by Malin Leave a Comment

Anna was only about a year younger than her sister Storm and spent much of her childhood tagging along after Storm and the boy next door, Cameron. When she started high school, Anna finally find her own friends and became involved in cheer leading, but when Storm dies in a car accident on the evening of her graduation, Anna is left confused and adrift, and Cameron seems to be the only one who understands and who knew Storm as well as her. When they were children, Storm used to make up summer “bucket lists”, although the three of them never […]

8/17/2018 Malin's CBR10 Review No:61 |

emmalita on If you find me mainlining a baguette in February, this is whyI’ll be looking forward to the updates. I’m sad that I can’t mainline a baguette right now.
Dome'Loki on Magically DelightfulI've picked this up a few times but would put it down within a few pages. Your review is making me think I just need...
Ellen Cicconi on Drop-kick That Magic Lamp into Mount DoomNice!! I’m glad you enjoyed this collection. I hope it gets some more love here on the Cannonball Read.
The Mama on You, Sir, Are No Colin FirthI bought this at the local Goodwill. I want my $1.16 back. The ONLY reason I finished it is because I knew I could come...
The Mama on On one of the covers it says “you will be charmed” but I was not charmed, not at all.I broke up with SEP after giving her far too many chances. The one that did it for me involved a guy named Bobby Tom...