Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Blood – Thicker Than Water?

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

by Leave a Comment

Bel Price was in the backseat when her mother went missing, but because she was two years old, she doesn’t remember the answers everyone wants, and she’s finally made peace with it. But when Rachel reappears sixteen years later, it upends everything Bel knew. I haven’t read Holly Jackson’s wildly popular A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series yet, but I requested up this book on NetGalley for the rave reviews those received as much as for the intriguing premise of this story. Certainly the […]

Head Empty, Just Vibes

Sicilian Devil's Prisoner by Caitlin Crews

by Leave a Comment

After his entire family was murdered, Jovi has become nothing more than a weapon for his mafia boss uncle. But when sent out to assassinate Rux, the daughter of a criminal, he finds himself falling for her instead. This book really is classic Harlequin Presents, full of drama, danger, and glamorous lives and locales, except it leans in fully into the steaminess of the romance. Jovi and Rux are a fun pair to follow. Despite the darkness of the story, Rux’s narration was hilarious, and […]

Everyday Jewish Lives Divided by Time

Once There Was a Town: The Memory Books of a Lost Jewish World by Jane Ziegelman

Matzah Ball Blues by Jennifer Wilck

by Leave a Comment

I did not mean to make it a Jewish double feature, but I just happened to read these books around the same time, and it was interesting to see the same traditions discussed in a historical context and then in an average middle-class family from New Jersey. Once There Was a Town by Jane Ziegelman – 3 stars After the Holocaust, since entire shtetls had been reduced to just a handful of survivors, people across continents came together to put together yizkor books to record […]

“We had no shield. I had to become one.”

Queen of Exiles by Vanessa Riley

by Leave a Comment

After the death of her husband and the coup ousting her family from power in the new nation of Hayti, Queen Marie-Louise Christophe and her daughters flee to Europe, where they must learn how to navigate a racist society as Black royalty. I’ve been excited to read this book, because it follows a woman and an area of history I’m not familiar with, and because as a Black monarch, I knew Louise would provide a radically new perspective on the Regency period, which I’ve read […]

Pike, This Ain’t Wuthering Heights

The Shocking Experiments of Miss Mary Bennet by Melinda Taub

by Leave a Comment

Mary Bennet is famously the odd one out among her bright, vivacious sisters – an awkward show-off and a bore. But in this book, it’s what Mary’s doing off the page that deserves attention. This book is part-sequel, part-companion to the fabulous The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch, which I read and greatly enjoyed last year. You haven’t got to read that book to enjoy this one – Mary and Lydia are after all not exactly close – but there’s definitely some things which […]

Golden Girls with Feet of Clay

The It Girls by Caroline Young

by Leave a Comment

Nowadays, when one thinks of someone who’s “famous for being famous,” one thinks of the Kardashians or Instagram influencers. But the phenomenon of the It girl is a long and storied one. I read this at about the same time as I read Skirts: Fashioning Modern Femininity in the Twentieth Century, and they work pretty well as companions – that book describing trendsetting fashion, and this book describing the trendsetters themselves. Young tells the story of It girls through the centuries, who hold such diverse […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo