Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

Arguably, America’s Greatest General

George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L. Roll

by Leave a Comment

I remember learning about the Marshall Plan in AP US History class and how critical it was to repairing the world after WWII. I did not realize until years later that General George C. Marshall was individual who lent his name to the plan. I’ve been in the Army for thirteen years, as of yesterday, and I’ve developed opinions on many famous generals from our history. Most of those opinions are demonstrably leery of anyone who receives unadulterated hero worship. I am not a fan of Patton, or Chesty Puller (I’m sorry to my USMC brethren). I think MacArthur explains […]

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 "Arguably, America’s Greatest General"

9/27/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 26 |

Opacities (Blackout Bingo, Award winners)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

by Leave a Comment

Ok, I had half started this review for my penultimate bingo square, and then realized that I almost missed the opportunity to make this book LITERALLY TITLED ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE AND FEATURING A BLIND PROTAGONIST my blackout finish. Luckily I realized my error in time to finish strong. This book follows Marie-Laure, a girl with congenital cataracts which have left her blind, in Nazi-occupied France. Her father, a locksmith for the Museum, is one of four employees sent with a priceless gem and three decoys to various parts of the country to avoid it falling into enemy […]

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 "Opacities (Blackout Bingo, Award winners)"

9/24/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 74 |

Not all heroes wear capes, but some do!

Cape by Kate Hannigan

by Leave a Comment

I picked this up mainly for the cover.  It is bright and makes me think the story inside is going to be exciting.  And it is! Our story follows Josie O’Malley, an Irish-American (I think she’s an immigrant, but she might be first-generation.)  She spends her time working at a diner to help out with the household expenses, which is a big help since her father is fighting in WWII.  She is also trying to control her temper while trying to fight the injustices she sees in her immediate surroundings, especially around the local bully.  (The bully seems unusually cruel […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

  • Cape by Kate Hannigan

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 "Not all heroes wear capes, but some do!"

7/21/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 47 |

A timely reminder that Nazis are evil and fighting them is heroic

D-Day Girls by Sarah Rose

by Leave a Comment

D-Day Girls: The Spies who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis and Helped Win World War II is a work of non-fiction about the women who worked in secret, behind the lines in France in the years of WWII leading up to D-Day. These women were recruited, vetted and trained in England to be dropped behind enemy lines. There, they helped co-ordinate the  resistance and lay the groundwork for the allied invasion. As their work was part of secret intelligence (the Special Operations Executive or SOE), much of what they accomplished remained secret until the war ended, and often even beyond. […]

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 "A timely reminder that Nazis are evil and fighting them is heroic"

5/30/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 21 |

Don’t Say We Didn’t Try

Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America's Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe by Rebecca Erbelding

by Leave a Comment

Due to extensive documentation in all manner of media, World War II is an enduring object of fascination. Just when we think we’ve heard everything, the inexhaustible well comes up with something new. In my favored stories of resistance, espionage, politicking, and propaganda, the Holocaust—Nazi Germany’s systematic genocide of Jews in occupied Europe—is impossible to avoid. (Yes, other minority groups were targeted, too. This book is not about them.) It’s a favorite pastime among WWII buffs to finger people, besides the Germans, who ought to share the blame for the most famous war crimes of all time. Maybe the worst […]

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 "Don’t Say We Didn’t Try"

2/10/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 11 |

Accessible, exciting historical fiction for the tween set

Lifeboat 12 by Susan Hood

by Leave a Comment

Almost accidentally, author Susan Hood stumbled upon a historical event that has gone mostly overlooked and it is the basis of her exciting middle grade novel Lifeboat 12.  The book is told in verse format by narrator and actual survivor Ken Sparks, who is thirteen years of age right before London is destroyed in the Blitz. His life in London is troubled by things large in scope (like running to bomb shelters nightly when the alarms go off and living off rations and hand-me-downs) and intimate (feeling slighted by his stepmother who dotes on his half-sister and only seems disappointed […]

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 "Accessible, exciting historical fiction for the tween set"

1/24/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 6 |

an exercise in lying to liars

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

by Leave a Comment

What began as a slow and cold (le Carré-esque) waiting game grew into a white hot flash of deceit, anxiety, and dangerous thrills. I cannot claim to know the full horrors and trials of World War II- nor can I draw a true comparison between that dark time and the present, but the world of this book is a different world from our current version. One constant remains: the truth is subjective. In 1940 a young woman is recruited into the fold of MI5. Europe is falling, Britain is in peril, and…notes need typing. I found myself wrapped up in […]

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 "an exercise in lying to liars"

1/11/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 2 |

you will falsely remember being told about Melmoth by your grandmother’s mother when you were very small

Melmoth by Sarah Perry

by 10 Comments

There is something immediately nauseating – hear me out- about this book. You can be nauseous when you feel ill, when you ride a roller coaster, when you are nervous, or when you eat too many sweets. There is a feeling of hopeful dread that climbs over you (and all of the characters within) before you have finished reading the first page. There is a feeling that you have been here – in a cafe in Prague, under an overpass in Manila, in a field on a river on the edges of Bohemia- and that you have heard these stories […]

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 "you will falsely remember being told about Melmoth by your grandmother’s mother when you were very small"

1/2/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 1 |


Shop on Amazon and Support CBR

Buy Original Cannonballer Prisco's book and help CBR!

Ad Partner