Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Be she Rachel or Catherine, one girl learns to survive and be free while all the while, in hiding

Catherine’s War by Julia Billet

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Catherine’s War is a Holocaust story with a twist. This time a young, French-Jewish girl, Rachel, goes into hiding but does it in the open. She (and other children) do not stay in any one place too long (usually not by choice). They sometimes are only one step ahead of the Nazis at any point. Julia Billet created (and Ivanka Hahnenberger translated), Rachel, our narrator. Rachel goes to the progressive Sèvres Children’s Home where children of both faiths learn in a non-traditional setting. We see the children (bravely but somewhat naively) wanting to fight the Nazi’s and teachers doing their […]

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10/7/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:411 |

Finding Home(s)

Monsieur Mediocre: One American Learns the High Art of Being Everyday French by John von Sothen

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Our library provides free copies of BookPage, which is a great little advert magazine for finding new and upcoming books. I highly recommend it if you’re trying to find something new to shake up your queue. Knowledge of Monsiuer Mediocre came to me via that magazine, and after a few months of waiting for an interlibrary loan to arrive it finally came last week! I’m happy to say this book was worth the wait. Jancee Dunn writes in her blurb on this one, this book is “sharp, funny, and surprisingly tender”. I agree. As the book’s subtitle explains, this is von […]

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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10/6/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:40 |

New character, old story

White Bird by R. J. Palacio

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There are two ways to look at this book: the cynical way and the not so cynical. First, cynical. You could just say this is a retelling of the Anne Frank story. However, (SPOILER) with two main plot differences: Sara (the Anne character) is hiding alone and not with her family/other families and she survives the ordeal. Finally, the not so cynical way allows you to see that White Bird by R. J. Palacio was inspired by all the stories of World War II and was heavily influenced by Anne Frank. The more cynical feelings were accented by the fact […]

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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9/30/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:397 |

Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon

A Dream of Flight: Alberto Santos-Dumont's Race Around the Eiffel Tower by Rob Polivka

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#cbr11bingo #TrueStory A Dream of Flight: Alberto Santos-Dumont’s Race Around the Eiffel Tower is one of those powerful books that gives you a piece of history you might not be familiar with. Though not an all-encompassing/text-book look, it is a complete and general look at the history of flight in its early years. And it also gives you the story of one person who did much to get it to what we know as aviation today. Years before the Wright Brothers, a young Brazilian man-made history by trying, failing, trying again, failing, until he finally got it right and was able […]

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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8/16/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:307 |

12th Century Boss Lady

The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick

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Even as a self-proclaimed Anglophile, and British history major in college, I must admit that I did not know much about Eleanor of Aquitaine. I am very glad to have stumbled upon this completed three-part series by Elizabeth Chadwick. Chadwick is a new author to me, but I enjoyed her style of writing and great attention to historical detail. Historical fiction cannot be easy to write but is so wonderful to read when an author gets it right. The books begins when Aelinor (the actual spelling of Eleanor’s name during the 12th Century) became the Duchess of Aquitaine when she […]

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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1/10/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:1 |

Good for Francophiles; for others, not so much

Something to Declare: Essays on France by Julian Barnes

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I hate not finishing a book. The literature student in me feels compelled to give every author his due, and there was a time when I would have slogged through anything no matter how disinterested I was. Now that I’m older and one would hope wiser, I’ve realized that life is short and there are times when I should cut my losses and move on to something that makes me happy. I’ve always had a love–meh relationship with Julian Barnes, so it surprised me at first that I was struggling so much with this collection of essays. They aren’t bad–I […]

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10/29/2017 's CBR9 Review No:21 |

Another breezy contemporary romance from the south of France

A Kiss in Lavender by Laura Florand

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Lucien Rosier grew up in a very tight knit group of cousins, with a strong sense of family. So when at eighteen, he discovered that he was in fact illegitimate, and not actually a Rosier, he ran away and joined the French Foreign Legion, where he crafted himself a new identity and support network of fellow soldiers. Fifteen years later, a determined woman has managed to locate him and figure out who he once used to be. His great-aunt wants to give him a legacy and his cousin is getting married. Can Lucien return to his childhood home or is […]

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10/22/2017 's CBR9 Review No:92 |

A Nazi is a Nazi is a Nazi

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

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I absolutely hate reading books about war because they upset me so much. I usually end up angry and crying.  Or angry and with a headache because I’m trying not to cry.  Basically, it all just upsets the crap out of me and I don’t like it. The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah, is no exception. I didn’t think it would be and although it was on my To-Read list, I probably wouldn’t have gotten around to reading it if it wasn’t selected by my book club. But, it was, and I had to read it and I ended up angry […]

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9/20/2017 's CBR9 Review No:28 |


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