Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Magical realism at its most wonderful

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

by Leave a Comment

BINGO – Flora (there’s a small flower at the center of the cover and Orquídea means ‘orchid’ in Spanish) The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina is told with two narratives: one of the past life of Orquídea Divina, matriarch of the Montoya family and the other of the Montoya family in present day. Orquídea is dying and she summons her family to her home to receive their inheritance. The family gathers and soon realize that no one is getting the family cuckoo clock or heirloom jewelry. No, Orquídea […]

Get the scooper, ’cause I got the scoop on a robo-dog and its girl

D-39: A Robodog’s Journey by Irene Latham

by Leave a Comment

I am not really a dog person, but something about the idea of D-39: A Robodog’s Journey was grabbing. Maybe the androgenous look of the character on the cover or the fact it was a robot dog and as far as I could remember I had never read a book with a robot dog. Maybe because it was free. But what kept me reading this novel by Irene Latham was two main things: first it was done in a poetic prose manner. But it was […]

Gao’s debut is messy, but yet, it is wonderfully so!

Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American by Laura Gao

by Leave a Comment

Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American is a messy book. But it is all wrapped up in a neatly created graphic novel. The world of Laura Gao has been seen in other stories (this is a coming-of-age story with features we know: immigration, expectations of family, coming out), but hers is completely unique to her and therefore, to the reader. At first, the book seems like it might be about the pandemic, and what happens to her and her family as Chinese […]

“And so I made the decision to change. It might seem like change was impossible, given my nature and my age, but I understood exactly what there was to lose. It was chemistry all over again. The point wasn’t whether or not I liked it. The point was it had to be done.”

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

by Leave a Comment

In one word: Bummer Cannonball Read Bingo: People I haven’t read any Ann Patchett previously; I could have sworn that I read Bel Canto but Goodreads shows it is in my “to read,” and I consider it a better history-keeper than my memory. I’m a big sucker for a book with accolades, so the “Pultizer finalist” sticker on the cover had my heart. I picked it up as it was the monthly selection of my library book club. In my estimation, this is both a […]

For the night is dark, and full of terrors

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

by 1 Comment

4.5 stars CBR13 Bingo: Shelfie In five creepy stories ranging from the historical to more recent times, writer and artist Emily Carroll gives us her take on proper spine-tingling fairy tales. Accompanied by her absolutely beautiful art, the tales are all the more chilling because of the illustrations. This absolutely qualifies as a graphic novel, or probably more accurately a graphic short story (or fairy tale) anthology. Some of the stories are short, some are longer, all managed to truly unnerve me, while also entertaining […]

When “Crank it up” doesn’t mean the music

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

by Leave a Comment

Ellen Hopkins is a thoughtful and interesting writer. They have a style with their prose poetry that can be both a pull, drawing you into the story and be a bit confusing as they will shape poems to fit the mood of the theme and/or point of the poem itself. The mayhem of the life, feeling or event Hopkins wants to show you is not easy, yet Hopkins handles it with a respect to the reader and subject. Crank could have had more to it, […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo