Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Instagram
  3. Follow us on Bluesky
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • Getting Started in CBR18
    • Rules of Respect
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
    • About Cannonball Read
  • Our Team
    • The CBR Team
    • Leaderboard
    • Recent Comments
    • Participant Interviews
    • Cannonballer Location Maps
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
    • Star Ratings
    • Featured Review Archive
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • Donate
    • CBR Merchandise
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • 2026 Registration
    • Suggest a Review
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Social Media

Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Is it too early in the year for me to claim my favorite book?

Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky

January 13, 2024 by andtheIToldYouSos 4 Comments

Reader, this book grabbed me by the perpetually wet shoestrings and dragged me through the night on a quixotic and tragic adventure. We know the hallmarks of Southern Gothic, but what about New England? Often we get the “spooky” bits of New England: Lovecraft, Salem, Puritans, but that’s not the full scope of New England Gothic. As a life-long resident of the damp and dark North, allow me to shed some weak Winter light on our Gothic trademarks: dying mill towns crumbling churches perpetual piles […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: catholic guilt, catholic iconography, Claire Oshetsky, coping mechanisms, magical realism, maine, Neko Case, New England Gothic, penance, repression

andtheIToldYouSos's CBR16 Review No:3 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: catholic guilt, catholic iconography, Claire Oshetsky, coping mechanisms, magical realism, maine, Neko Case, New England Gothic, penance, repression ·
Rating:
· 4 Comments

More books I read this summer and am only reviewing now to make it to 104

Cassiel's Servant by Jacqueline Carey

Codename Charming by Lucy Parker

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Sleep No More by Seanan McGuire

December 30, 2023 by Malin Leave a Comment

Cassiel’s Servant – Jacqueline Carey Rating: 3.5 stars Kushiel’s Dart is one of my favourite fantasy books, and books in general, of all time. It stands up, I re-read it this summer in preparation for the release of this. Has Jacqueline Carey done exactly the same thing as Stephenie Meyer and E.L James did, and retold her already existing novel from the POV of another central character? Yes, she has. Was I pretty sure that this was going to be a lot more worthwhile and […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, History, Mystery, Romance, Young Adult Tagged With: #food, adventure, alternate history, BIPOC, Cassiel's Servant, CBR15, Codename Charming, contemporary fiction, Contemporary Romance, curse, elizabeth acevedo, faeries, friendship, historical fantasy, jacqueline carey, kushiel's legacy, LGBTQIA, Lucy Parker, magical realism, mystery, October Daye, Palace insiders, paranormal fantasy, Romance, royalty, Seanan McGuire, shapeshifters, Sleep No More, teenage motherhood, with the fire on high, Young Adult

Malin's CBR15 Review No:99 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, History, Mystery, Romance, Young Adult · Tags: #food, adventure, alternate history, BIPOC, Cassiel's Servant, CBR15, Codename Charming, contemporary fiction, Contemporary Romance, curse, elizabeth acevedo, faeries, friendship, historical fantasy, jacqueline carey, kushiel's legacy, LGBTQIA, Lucy Parker, magical realism, mystery, October Daye, Palace insiders, paranormal fantasy, Romance, royalty, Seanan McGuire, shapeshifters, Sleep No More, teenage motherhood, with the fire on high, Young Adult ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

A flawed but engaging read that has taken me about 13 years to read.

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

December 10, 2023 by ingres77 Leave a Comment

I’m not sure when I first became aware of this book, but I bought it over a decade ago, before I met my wife. Before I had much of a life to speak of. Recently separated and having lost a fairly good job in the midst of what felt like a pretty terrible economic meltdown, I was going through my own little existential crisis. Working two jobs that weren’t really sufficient, I was struggling to find myself – to find meaning and purpose, a sense […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: junot diaz, magical realism, Pulitzer Prize, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

ingres77's CBR15 Review No:30 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: junot diaz, magical realism, Pulitzer Prize, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Maladaptive Daydreaming

Bunny by Mona Awad

November 21, 2023 by Pooja Leave a Comment

No matter how Samantha loathes the cliche of girls who make up the rest of her writing group, with their overwrought work and their insistence on referring to each other as ‘Bunny,’ she can’t help but get sucked into their strange world when they invite her to join them. This is a dark and satirical read which pokes plenty of fun at the pretentious streak that can run deep in the people who attend MFA programs – considering the author was one of them, the […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction Tagged With: #writing, art, black comedy, comedy, friendship, horror, magical realism, mona awad

Pooja's CBR15 Review No:85 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction · Tags: #writing, art, black comedy, comedy, friendship, horror, magical realism, mona awad ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Catching Up On Some Reviews

Still Life by Louise Penny

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

November 14, 2023 by Tracy Leave a Comment

Still Life by Louise Penny Back when I was hoping to complete a Cannonball Bingo, Still Life was my choice for the North America square. The first novel in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series, it’s set in the little town of Three Pines in Canada and follows the search for the murderer of 76-year-old Jane Neal. I don’t often read mysteries, so I was surprised at how Penny approached the mystery. We spend a lot of time with other characters in the town […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery Tagged With: Chief Inspector Gamache, elizabeth acevedo, Fredrik Backman, Louise Penny, magical realism

Tracy's CBR15 Review No:35 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery · Tags: Chief Inspector Gamache, elizabeth acevedo, Fredrik Backman, Louise Penny, magical realism ·
· 0 Comments

“their houses would have wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors so that Esteban’s memory could go everywhere without bumping into beams”

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa (Translator)

November 9, 2023 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

I have been circling Gabriel García Márquez for decades, almost too afraid to approach his work at all. On and off the reading lists his works go, a constant pendulum of my ambition or lack thereof. When staring at our Bingo squares and realizing a few short stories and novellas were likely to help my progress I went on the hunt for a few and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel García Márquez came up. Here we go, I thought – here’s […]

Filed Under: Featured, Fiction, Short Stories Tagged With: cbr15bingo, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa (Translator), magical realism, short story, south america, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, works in translation

faintingviolet's CBR15 Review No:28 · Genres: Featured, Fiction, Short Stories · Tags: cbr15bingo, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa (Translator), magical realism, short story, south america, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, works in translation ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • …
  • 29
  • Next Page »


Recent Comments

  • Emmalita
    on CBR18 Book Review Bingo September Check In
    [wpd-giphy id='fUQ4rhUZJYiQsas6WD' subdomain='media1' width='400' height='300']
  • BlackRaven
    on CBR18 Book Review Bingo September Check In
    That's what I did! (And somehow I still have a poop ton to post!)
  • narfna
    on CBR18 Book Review Bingo September Check In
    This post is a good reminder that I need to write some backlogged reviews!
  • G.D. Giant
    on lucked into the zeitgeist without realizing it, does that make me extra cool?
    Oh, I'm excited for this one. I think I'm going to select it for my IRL book club, R.A.G.E, when...
  • G.D. Giant
    on Next Stop: Hell
    I reread because sometimes I just don't love a book because I'm not in the mood for it, so I...
See More Recent Comments »

Support Our Mission

  • Support Our Mission, Donate Today!
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo

The reviews and comments posted on this site reflect the opinions of individual posters and do not reflect the views of Cannonball Read.

© 2026 Cannonball Read Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) | Log in