Cannonball Read 9

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

Origin Story of an Icon

Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era by Eiji Yoshikawa

by Leave a Comment

While the link is for the entire Musashi saga, this review is of the first paperback volume which seems to be out of print or otherwise unavailable from Amazon directly. There are five or six volumes of the paperback version of the story. One of the first RPG videogames I ever played was Brave Fencer Musashi on the original Playstation. While the game was fun and lighthearted, I learned from a video game store employee that Musashi was actually an iconic Japanese figure. I wanted to learn more, but it wasn’t until decades later that I finally hunkered down and invested the time. Eiji […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era by Eiji Yoshikawa or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "Origin Story of an Icon"

5/22/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:15 |

Ladies Who Paint

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith

by Leave a Comment

When I first started reading The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, by Dominic Smith, I was pretty sure I didn’t like it. The first chapter felt like it was about dissatisfied rich people and I was not in the mood for that nonsense.  Happily, it is not about dissatisfied rich people, nor is it about the theft and forgery of a Dutch painting, which is what I thought it was about after I decided it wasn’t about rich people.  Really though, it’s about three very different lives that were impacted by the painting in very different ways. We first […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "Ladies Who Paint"

5/11/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:17 |

You could do worse than this fictionalized primer on the War of the Roses

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

by 1 Comment

3.5 stars Philippa Gregory is a giant in her corner of historical fiction, which seems essentially “Aristocrats and Nobles of 15th and 16th century Britain (particularly Women).” Even though I had never read her books, I had a detached respect for her as a well-researched author whose fictionalizations garnered generalized interest for the history her books cover. That impression holds true, and I still appreciate her doing her thing. I get that because she’s working from a record of stuff that actually happened, she can only embellish or editorialize so much before she risks becoming simply inaccurate. However, I still […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase The White Queen by Philippa Gregory or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "You could do worse than this fictionalized primer on the War of the Roses"

5/8/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:36 |

In which I take another step toward beatific acceptance of my plebian taste

By Blood by Ellen Ullman

by Leave a Comment

This probably qualifies as another lit-fic fail for me, by which I don’t mean that the book was a failure; I mostly likely just failed to appreciate it. It’s one of those oniony books that has a lot of layers, and characters who relate to each other on levels both appropriate and otherwise. Set in the 1960’s, there’s a story of a young woman who finds out she is of European Jewish descent, and finds herself digging into her history by way of trying to locate her birth mother. This story is told by the young woman to her therapist, […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase By Blood by Ellen Ullman or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "In which I take another step toward beatific acceptance of my plebian taste"

5/3/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:34 |

Back at sea with my imaginary BFF’s

The Far Side of the World by Patrick O'Brian

by Leave a Comment

Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series is one of my favourites of all time. Despite initially not having much of a clue what the many, different sailing terms meant, somewhere in the first instalment I fell hook, line and sinker for the characters – particularly for the delightfully grumpy Stephen Maturin – and since then, whenever times have got tough and I need a pick-me-up, I treat myself to a little holiday in their company. As O’Brian is deceased and the series numbers twenty books, I’ve been making sure that I don’t binge on them so that I’ll know that I have […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase The Far Side of the World by Patrick O'Brian or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "Back at sea with my imaginary BFF’s"

4/18/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:25 |

The good ones are often controversial…

Roots by Alex Haley

by 2 Comments

Roots is a work of historical fiction written in 1976 by Alex Haley. He begins with the life and eventual capture of his great-great-great-great grandfather Kunta Kinte in Africa. In what follows is a mostly fictional story, except for possibly a few details and Kinte’s lineage. Fiction or not, Roots is an amazing saga of nine generations. The most intriguing part of the book, for me, was the beginning, which focused on Kinte’s life. After Kinte was transported to America to be sold as a slave, I understood how he yearned for his village, the sounds of the monkeys in […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Roots by Alex Haley or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "The good ones are often controversial…"

4/14/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:13 |

Over there, inside the Smoke, pain was joy and anger peace. Violence was love.

Smoke by Dan Vyleta

by Leave a Comment

The alternative world presented in Smoke is a fascinating idea, and a mix of ideas I was thrilled to be spending time with. In Vyleta’s altered Victorian England sinful thoughts and feelings are manifested as smoke that rises from your skin and leaves a unwashable soot behind. Breathing in the smoke of another can spread their feelings into you, and breed more and darker thoughts. The cleanest of people, who happen also to be the wealthiest, are seen as morally better people, and spend their lives learning to control and repress their Smoke. Two boys from a high class boarding school are sent […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Smoke by Dan Vyleta or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "Over there, inside the Smoke, pain was joy and anger peace. Violence was love."

3/24/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:5 |

“Strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves.”

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

by 1 Comment

4.5 stars. I hate to say I sometimes judge books by their covers, but it’s the truth. It wasn’t until I saw the stunning UK cover that I really stopped and paid attention to this book everyone has raved about. No regrets! This was a stunning debut novel and absolutely worth a read. Homegoing is a generational tale that starts with two half sisters in the Gold Coast, Effia and Esi. One becomes the wife of a white slave trader and the other is sold into slavery, unbeknownst to her sister. The way this book is structured, we check in […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "“Strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves.”"

3/19/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:17 |

Follow CBR on Instagram

Shop on Amazon and Support CBR

Buy Original Cannonballer Prisco's book and help CBR!

Ad Partner