Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“For even to listen to the story of the Trưng Sisters is, in these troubled times, a dangerous act.”

Bronze Drum by Phong Nguyen

by Leave a Comment

The Trưng sisters, Trắc and Nhi, are as different than each other than sisters can be, but they are united in one thing – their outrage at the treatment of the Viet by the colonizing Han Chinese. When their outrages grow too heavy to bear, they raise an army of women to fight back. It occurred to me while I was reading this book that not only do I know very little about Vietnam past the eponymous war (and even that mostly through the eyes […]

CBR Diversion: People Who Read People Are the Luckiest People in the World!

by 20 Comments

This diversion we will discuss books about real people: biographies, memoirs, and historical fiction. I read about people mostly through historical fiction. I adore all the books written by Fiona Davis, Lynda Cohen Loigman, and Kate Quinn.  After I proclaim for the umpteenth time, I am so done with WWII, I stumble upon a masterpiece like Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray. I will gobble up the occasional juicy memoir or biography. Who could resist Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris (which must be […]

Do not mistake this kindness. I simply want to be the one who breaks you.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

by Leave a Comment

His heart has a draft. It lets in light. It lets in storms. It lets in everything. ― V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Ever feel like running away from your life and forming an everlasting pact with a hot demon you meet in the woods on the day of your wedding? Addie didn’t feel like it either but that’s what happened. It’s 1729 in rural France. Addie is twenty-three, single, a dreamer, an artist, and has zero interest in succumbing to the […]

“And he’ll burn our horizons / make no mistakes”

The Song of Achilles (2011) by Madeline Miller

by Leave a Comment

Spoiler alerts for a Bronze Age epic poem, I guess, also content note for discussion of sex in this review. I liked this but I didn’t love it. Homer’s Iliad is about blood and fire and gods and fate, about a war that made heroes and villains into legends that echoed through the ages (and sometimes switched their positions). The Song of Achilles is about one of these heroes, the titular Achilles, he of the heel, and his lover Patroclus, and it’s…sweet? And (rather surprisingly) […]

State Sponsored Horror

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

by Leave a Comment

I’m not a short story guy. I like a long, dense tale I can sink my teeth into. And there are so many Latin American writers who have penned beauties in that regard. Bolano, Marquez, Gamboa just to name a few. Mariana Enríquez is known for her short fiction collections. I haven’t read them. But in reading the first fifth of this one, I can see why she is so acclaimed. The first part of this book is one of the more visually arresting tales […]

A kid asked me to do define communism. Um…

Red Scare by Liam Francis Walsh

by Leave a Comment

Fear of communism is rampant in America, but at the moment, Peggy is more concerned with her ongoing complications from polio, her parent’s struggling marriage, and oh yeah: witnessing the murder of a mysterious man the feds are calling a Russian spy. The spy was carrying a glowing red rod, and before he died, he hid the item in one of Peggy’s crutches. Not only does Peggy find herself hiding a mysterious Russian artifact, but that artifact enables her to fly! Suddenly, her health woes […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo