Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Knocking Out Three BINGO Squares

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

His Face Is the Sun by Michelle Jabes Corpora

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CBR18 BINGO: Versus (for Chosen Ones – good vs evil), Wealth (Reluctant Fundamentalist), and Map (His Face Is the Sun) Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth What happens as the dust settles after defeating the world’s greatest evil, in this case the Dark One? That’s the premise of this interesting take on the chosen one trope. There was a prophecy about who the chosen one would be, but five people ending up fitting that description. They end up working together to defeat the Dark One. But that […]

The Mother Sure Is a Piece of Work

To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth

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cbr17bingo: family This sequel picks up not long after the first one ends. Dymitr decides to return to Poland with Ala to accomplish a task in exchange for something he needs. While there, this task unexpectedly intersects with a mission Niko is on. Where this book really shines is character development. While I acknowledged that there was limited room for character exploration in the first novella, it was still something I hoped we would get more of in this book, and we did. I now […]

An Urban Fantasy Featuring Slavic Folklore

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

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cbr17bingo: diaspora—a lot of the non-human creatures settled in the U.S. after fleeing the Holy Order in Europe, especially Poland. Who knew Veronica Roth had written so many books? I kind of lost sight of her after the Divergence trilogy, but she has a number of other publications to her name now, and I’m glad I decided to start exploring them. This novella is an urban fantasy set in Chicago. It follows Dymitr, who makes a deal with Ala, a zmora—a fear-eating creature—to help him […]

The hope of space

Arca by Van Jensen, Jesse Lonergan (Illustrator)

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) by Martha Wells

Ark (Forward) by Veronica Roth

How It Unfolds (The Far Reaches, #1) by James S.A. Corey

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I often don’t have time for full epic novels, so often turn to science fiction short stories and graphic novels. They can blow my mind with intriguing premises and characters. Unintentionally I kept turning to space stories that explored future possibilities for humanity. I like how novellas and short stories allow dipping my toes into the works of some heavy hitters of sci-fi. Arca is a graphic novel written by Van Jensen and illustrated by Jesse Lonergan. In this story, we meet teenage workers who […]

Why does having multiple values cause you to be a minority?

Divergent by Veronica Roth

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CBR 16 Bingo – And also (Dun dun): Suspenseful, dystopian, and generally dramatic. I read a lot of dystopian and, since Divergent is one of the most highly rated modern dystopian books, I felt obligated to read it. Divergent is set in a dystopian Chicago, where society is divided into 5 factions, based on values. There’s Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). 16 year old Beatrice, a member of Abnegation who never really fit in […]

The first one was so good… and now we have this

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

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CBR 16 Bingo – Fiasco: This book itself was a fiasco. It’s the sequel to a great book that deserved a great sequel, not one that was neither entertaining nor engaging, hence me deming it a fiasco. I had high hopes going into this book. I picked it up immediately after Divergent because I wanted more of the characters and world, and I wanted to know what happened next, but this book did not satisfy that. I didn’t learn what happened next, because it was […]



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