Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search

“Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there’s no way in or out. In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys. It’s loss and regret and misery and yearning that drive the story forward, along its twisted road.”

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

by 2 Comments

In another time or another headspace, I might have given this five stars. If I ever re-read, I probably will. Unfortunately, my brain was just not in the mood for a long, measured, thoughtful, historical literary fiction novel when I read this back in April (!). I should probably have done the audiobook instead. (Anyone know if it’s any good? I’ve never heard of the narrator before.) *Have I EVER been in the mood for a Margaret Atwood? 🤔 I somehow managed to read The […]

Sometimes the Hype is Real

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

by 5 Comments

I don’t love reading books that have all the buzz. The ones on all of the must read most anticipated best of lists. That get picked for all of the book clubs. I’m not inherently opposed to popularity. If anything, I find myself too swayed by all of the opinions. I’m overcritical or underwhelmed usually. It helps if I let some time pass, so it doesn’t feel so in my face. Library hold lists make this easier. My hold for Yellowface came in and I […]

An earlier novel by a favorite author

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel

by Leave a Comment

CBR15 BINGO – Relation”Ship”, for the relationships between four high school friends and their families, both known and unknown I suspect I’m like most readers in that I first encountered Emily St. John Mandel when I read her brilliant and heart-aching Station Eleven. Since then, I’ve eagerly awaited her new novels and, having caught up on those, I finally turned to her earlier works. The Lola Quartet, published two years before Station Eleven, is the story of a group of high school friends in Florida who […]

Not my usual thing, but very enjoyable.

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

by Leave a Comment

I will be honest, I only got Black Cake from BOTM because it was the only Book of the Year in 2022 that I hadn’t already read, and you get a free one every year. I didn’t want to say no to a free book. And I’m glad I got it! This was highly readable and emotionally affecting, even if it wasn’t always able to hold my attention perfectly (lots of little breaks for romance novels, fanfic, etc. — I am who I am). And […]

“The world was filling with ghosts. We were a haunted country in a haunted world.”

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

by Leave a Comment

This is a book I wouldn’t have picked up if not for one of my book clubs, and this is exactly why book clubs and stuff that makes you read outside your comfort zone are so fun. This book was so good! A real treat for book-lovers, and for humans who lived through (are living through?) the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn’t get excited about this one until somebody told me it was about a woman who is haunted by her least favorite bookshop customer, who […]

Wow, what a bummer.

The Night Ship by Jess Kidd

by Leave a Comment

It’s actually pretty impressive how this book could take super interesting subject matter and make it this dull. This book did absolutely nothing for me, except make me wish it was over. I can’t entirely pinpoint why, so I’m chalking it up to disliking the style it was written in, but there were also some baked-in flaws that could have made it better for me. This is a dual-timeline story, one in 1628 following a young Dutch girl whose mother has just died, who is […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo