Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

CBRBingo – Own Voices. If you know anyone with the rally cry of “send her back” give them this book.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

by Leave a Comment

CBR Bingo – Own Voices This is my second read of Mohsin Hamid, having read “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” last year. He was not on my radar except for the intentional choice to read outside of my standard zone, by way of fighting ignorance (looking at you, Drumpf) with education. I came across an article via lithub (http://lithub.com/10-contemporary-nov…) that gave 10 contemporary books to read, and a friend and I decided to tackle “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.” It was interesting, surprising, heartfelt, and disheartening. It put a real face to what we generally categorize in the US as dangerous and foreign. I […]

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.

Share the post "CBRBingo – Own Voices. If you know anyone with the rally cry of “send her back” give them this book."

7/28/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:29 |

Yadda yadda yadda, and there was peace throughout the land

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

by Leave a Comment

Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West has been on my radar since it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2017. When it showed up on the shortlist for this year’s International DUBLIN Literary Award, I figured it was time to see what all the fuss was about.  In an unnamed city in a long-simmering war with itself, Nadia and Saeed meet at a night class. At first cautious in their romance, they are thrown together when the fighting intensifies and Saeed’s mother is blown apart in her car. Saeed convinces Nadia to move in with him and his father for […]

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.

Share the post "Yadda yadda yadda, and there was peace throughout the land"

5/5/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:22 |

Beautiful and Tragic

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

by Leave a Comment

I chose to read this book because I saw it on the to-read list of a baseball player I really like, Sean Doolittle.  Doolittle is a very good player and someone who is known for being an even better person.  He is also considered one of the most, let’s say intellectual, players in baseball and maybe sports as a whole.  He attended the University of Virginia, in my home state, so I’ve always felt an affinity for Doolittle.  He posted a picture of his current to-do list and baseball analyst Keith Law, another favorite of mine, and Law tweeted that […]

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.

Share the post "Beautiful and Tragic"

4/17/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:15 |

To Believe or Not to Believe

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

by Leave a Comment

Set as a monologue given by Changez to a man he meets in Lahore – a man who may or may not be a spy – The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a book that not only examines a Pakistani man who is in America during 9-11 but also the question of the reliable or unreliable narrator. Changez’s story details his, perhaps, buying into the American dream or idea, his love for a typical, cliched American beauty, and his reaction to the terrorist attack 9-11. The question is whether or not he is telling the truth. There is his name, there is […]

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.

Share the post "To Believe or Not to Believe"

2/10/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:17 |

Of course it would cost something, but he was an expert in cutting corners; and when there were no more corners left he would make circles rounder.

The Magic Barrel and Other Stories; Elric of Melibone; The Humbling; Joe Gould's Teeth; The Maltese Falcon; How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia; Happy Endings; DA; Fox 8; Snowpiercer; Embroideries; Tinkers by Bernard Malamud; Michael Moorcock; Philip Roth; Jill Lepore; Dashiell Hammett; Mohsin Hamid; Various Authors - Diana Schultz, Mike Mignola, Harvey Pekar et al; Connie Willis; Marjane Satrapi; George Saunders; Jacques Lob and Jean Marc Rochette; Paul Harding

by Leave a Comment

The Magic Barrel – 5/5 Stars This story collection came out in 1959 and contains the well known title story, but also has several other very good stories. It won the National Book Award as well. As I have previously stated in reviews, the age of the writer (here in a kind of debut effort) lends itself to an already mature and thoughtful work (this was also true for many of Raymond Chandler’s stories as well as the story collection A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley). The result here is  several stories that know what they’re doing and have a […]

Share the post "Of course it would cost something, but he was an expert in cutting corners; and when there were no more corners left he would make circles rounder."

12/28/2018 's CBR10 Review No:483 |

We are all migrants through time

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

by Leave a Comment

I found Exit West by Mohsin Hamid through two different sources. First, it was on President Obama’s 2017 recommended reading list. This was already more than enough incentive for me to start reading, but it was also on NPR’s Best Books of 2017, which has become one of my favorite sources for finding new books. Before I began reading, I only had the vague notion that this was a story about refugees, which seems especially relevant in today’s world. I was expecting a humanizing story of the danger and struggle refugees have as they run from violence and war–looking for a safe place […]

Share the post "We are all migrants through time"

6/15/2018 's CBR10 Review No:25 |

A magical unresolution to refugee realities

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

by Leave a Comment

Another great pick from my Internations bookclub, Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West left me with seriously mixed feelings. On the one hand, I love books that make me question my own paradigms and face my short comings, and this book has definitely scored high points in this category. I also enjoyed the way the author escapes from the commonplace formula of boy meets girl – boy falls in love with girl – they overcome difficulties of their own doing and live happily ever after. Nothing of the sort in this book.  It feels real and shows how, in real life, love does not […]

Share the post "A magical unresolution to refugee realities"

2/21/2018 's CBR10 Review No:2 |

Another Book That Won’t Be on President Trump’s Nightstand (But Should Be!)

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

by Leave a Comment

It might seem odd that in cities teetering at the edge of the abyss young people still go to class—in this case an evening class on corporate identity and product branding—but that is the way of things, with cities as with life, for one moment we are pottering about our errands as usual and the next we are dying and our eternally impending ending does not put a stop to our transient beginnings and middles until the instant when it does (3-4). This passage, written by the Mohsin Hamid early on in Exit West, grabbed my attention and pulled me […]

Share the post "Another Book That Won’t Be on President Trump’s Nightstand (But Should Be!)"

5/20/2017 's CBR9 Review No:10 |


Shop on Amazon and Support CBR

Buy Original Cannonballer Prisco's book and help CBR!

Ad Partner