Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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The redemptive power of empathy

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

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Lincoln in the Bardo is a fitting novel to read during November, the month of the dead. Set in a Washington, DC, cemetery in February 1862, the novel combines real historical events and an imagined spiritual realm. This is a story about death and loss, moving on (or not), and redemption. As in the film The Sixth Sense, the dead of Oak Hill Cemetery don’t know they’re dead (or if they do, they are not saying so). These souls refer to their coffins as “sick boxes” and are waiting for chance to reconnect to those they loved, to get revenge, […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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11/30/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:59 |

A well-rounded portrait of a rock icon

Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren

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Janis Joplin has been the subject of a number of biographies. She is an irresistible topic after all. A rising star, a trailblazer for women in rock whose passion and emotion were evident in every song she sang, she lived hard and died young. Janis performed at Monterey and Woodstock, palled around with other musical greats of the ‘60s and died of a heroin overdose while at the height of her artistic powers. Hers is a story of triumph and tragedy combined. In this biography, Linda George-Warren gives the reader a picture of Janis as a young woman committed to […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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11/19/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:58 |

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Maria Longworth Storer: From Music and Art to Popes and Presidents by Constance J. Moore and Nancy M. Broermann

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As a native Cincinnatian, I am familiar with the name Longworth and that family’s connection to local history. Maria Longworth Storer was the founder of and one of the creators at the world renowned Rookwood Pottery. This new biography of Maria Longworth Storer opened my eyes not just to this formidable woman’s business acumen, artistic sensibility and philanthropy, which were already well known and documented, but also to her religious and political views and ambitions. Maria Longworth Storer came from a wealthy society family, but she was also a bit of a rebel who did not hesitate to promote her […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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11/8/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:57 |

We Are Family

The House of Broken Angels: A Novel by Luis Alberto Urrea

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The House of Broken Angels is the story of two days and of a lifetime. It’s a beautiful novel about family; about pain, sorrow, and regret; about love, forgiveness, and perseverance. The de la Cruz family is gathering for two momentous events: the funeral of Mama America and the 70th birthday of Big Angel, Mama’s oldest son and patriarch of the extended de la Cruz clan. Yet, as everyone knows, this will be Big Angel’s last birthday; cancer has wracked his body and he has very little time left. Author Luis Alberto Urrea takes us into the minds of Big […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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11/2/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:56 |

Iranian immigrant experience, part 2

The Stationery Shop: Novel by Marjan Kamali

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My last review was The Saffron Kitchen, a novel set in modern London and in Iran in the 1950s and ‘60s, a novel about interrupted love and political upheaval. The Stationery Shop is a similar type of novel, set in 1953 Tehran and the modern US and also featuring interrupted love and political upheaval. While The Saffron Kitchen alludes to political developments in Iran, its main focus is on the trauma these events have caused its main character and her relationship with the love interest of her youth. The Stationery Shop is more political in many ways, but the love […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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10/16/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:55 |

Important reminder that refugees don’t WANT to leave their homes

The Saffron Kitchen: A Novel by Yasmin Crowther

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I found this on summer vacation at an independent bookstore at Rehoboth Beach (Browseabout Books). It was a staff pick, and as I had had luck with previous staff picks from this store (Mudbound), I invested in this novel. And I am not disappointed. Published in 2006, The Saffron Kitchen is a beautiful, heartbreaking, entirely realistic story about Iran and England, mothers and daughters, the desire to be free and the pull of home and the past. Yasmin Crowther, the daughter of an English father and Iranian mother, writes what she knows and takes the reader on a journey from […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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10/7/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:54 |

Shining Light on Colonialism

Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah

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Dr. David Livingstone died in May of 1873 in a village called Chitambo (in present day Zambia), located in central Africa. His African attendants buried his heart there, embalmed his body, and then transported it along with his papers over 1500 miles to Zanzibar so that they could be returned to England. The journey took 200+ days and two of the men on the trip Susi and Chuma gave a short account of it, mentioning illness and deaths within the travel party and other dangers along the way. In Out of Darkness, Shining Light, Petina Gappah imagines this journey through […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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10/2/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:53 |

Debut novel worth noting (Cannonball and Bingo Blackout)

Oksana, Behave! by Maria Kuznetsova

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Cbr11bingo Reader’s Choice, substituting for Two heads are better than one Bingo Blackout/Cannonball! I picked this one up for the cover, but I bought it because it is related to the interests of my youth — Slavic studies and history. Maria Kuznetsova’s debut novel manages to be both funny and serious as she describes the life of Oksana Ivanovna Konnikova from her childhood, when the family moved from Kiev to Florida, until her adulthood. Oksana has to deal with loss, uprootedness, unrequited loves, and disappointing career options as she strives to find love and success as a writer. Oksana serves […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

Share the post "Debut novel worth noting (Cannonball and Bingo Blackout)"

9/21/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:52 |


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