Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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> Tag: read harder challenge 2020

I guess I just don’t get the “narrative in verse” sensibility.

SHOUT by Laurie Halse Anderson

December 30, 2020 by narfna Leave a Comment

This three (and a half) star rating is entirely personal preference. I just would prefer that this book was in prose instead of verse. I would nearly always prefer a work be in verse if it is possible. Obviously if your aim is to write poems, individually crafted ones with like, a poetic aim or whatever (I have no idea why poets do what they do) that’s not gonna work. But here, this is a memoir, and while there were several “poems” that worked as […]

Filed Under: Biography/Memoir, Non-Fiction, Poetry Tagged With: #memoir, Laurie Halse Anderson, memoir in verse, narfna, poetry, read harder challenge 2020, shout, verse

narfna's CBR12 Review No:189 · Genres: Biography/Memoir, Non-Fiction, Poetry · Tags: #memoir, Laurie Halse Anderson, memoir in verse, narfna, poetry, read harder challenge 2020, shout, verse ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Hubris is the name of the game.

Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson

December 29, 2020 by narfna Leave a Comment

This was just an okay read for me. A narrative non-fiction account of the hurricane in 1900 that was one of the most destructive in American history, Isaac’s Storm is really a feat of research and documentation. It’s clear Larson did his homework. It just never really grabbed me, until it did grab me but in a very unpleasant way. Larson painstakingly accounts the days leading up to the hurricane, mostly focusing on Isaac Cline, who headed up the Galveston, TX branch of the weather […]

Filed Under: History, Non-Fiction Tagged With: #history, Erik Larson, Galveston, hurricanes, isaac's storm, meteorology, narfna, non fiction, read harder challenge 2020, the hubris of men, Weather

narfna's CBR12 Review No:185 · Genres: History, Non-Fiction · Tags: #history, Erik Larson, Galveston, hurricanes, isaac's storm, meteorology, narfna, non fiction, read harder challenge 2020, the hubris of men, Weather ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

I found this dull, and won’t be continuing the series.

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of the Empress, #1) by Julie C. Dao

December 16, 2020 by narfna 6 Comments

Honestly not sure I can milk 250 words out of this one. Forest of a Thousand Lanterns didn’t really spark my attention back when it first came out, but when Read Harder wanted me to read a retelling by an author of color, this was on one of the lists I looked at, and picking YA fantasy seemed a good idea at the time. And honestly, it wasn’t bad, I just didn’t find it interesting, at all. It doesn’t help that I didn’t realize this […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: #fantasy, forest of a thousand lanterns, Julie C. Dao, narfna, read harder challenge 2020, retellings, rise of the empress, YA, ya fantasy

narfna's CBR12 Review No:180 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: #fantasy, forest of a thousand lanterns, Julie C. Dao, narfna, read harder challenge 2020, retellings, rise of the empress, YA, ya fantasy ·
Rating:
· 6 Comments

“When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.”

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

December 15, 2020 by narfna Leave a Comment

This was so good, and I’m very glad I read it. So subtle and skillfully put together. To think about this woman dying at 34, and how many more great pieces of art she could have created. This is why I like to do Read Harder every year, because I probably wouldn’t have gotten around to this without it. This is a three act play that follows the Youngers, a black family living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s. Mom Lena, son […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: a raisin in the sun, drama, Lorraine Hansberry, narfna, plays, read harder challenge 2020, script

narfna's CBR12 Review No:174 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: a raisin in the sun, drama, Lorraine Hansberry, narfna, plays, read harder challenge 2020, script ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

“They took everything and ground it down to dust as fine as gunpowder, they fired their guns into the air in victory and the strays flew out into the nothingness of histories written wrong and meant to be forgotten. Stray bullets and consequences are landing on our unsuspecting bodies even now.” #CBRBingo – Orange

There There by Tommy Orange

October 31, 2020 by narfna 2 Comments

I have complained about literary fiction before, and I will complain about it again. But this book is a great example of the genre, in part because Tommy Orange is so good at his craft (this is a debut!!), but I think also because he is an author that provides a voice that is marginalized. He has things to say. The book itself is seeking (in part) to reckon with the idea of the modern Indian, the Urban Indian, and it does so with not […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: cbr12bingo, lit-fic, literary fiction, narfna, read harder challenge 2020, there there, tommy orange

narfna's CBR12 Review No:168 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: cbr12bingo, lit-fic, literary fiction, narfna, read harder challenge 2020, there there, tommy orange ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments

“We are all fixing what is broken. It is the task of a lifetime. We’ll leave much unfinished for the next generation.”

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

October 27, 2020 by narfna Leave a Comment

I was given this book as a birthday present about six years ago by my friend Lindsay and it has been languishing on my shelves ever since. Enter 2020, the Read Harder Challenge, and whatever the fuck else has been going on this year that means I’m reading more from my own shelves than anywhere else. And I’m glad I finally got around to it! This is an over 600 page literary fiction book, but it reads in the way I like my literary fiction […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Abraham Verghese, addis ababa, conjoined twins, Cutting for Stone, Ethiopia, historical fiction, lit-fic, literary fiction, medical, narfna, read harder challenge 2020, twins

narfna's CBR12 Review No:152 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Abraham Verghese, addis ababa, conjoined twins, Cutting for Stone, Ethiopia, historical fiction, lit-fic, literary fiction, medical, narfna, read harder challenge 2020, twins ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
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