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July 2021
MsWas's Message Corner
Hi everyone,
We’ve reached the halfway mark for CBR13! Now, how does that make you feel when you read that? Are you psyched because you’ve reviewed this year more than ever before? Or are you panicked because you are behind?
What I hope you are thinking is, “Huzzah it’s bingo time!” Because that’s what it is to me - the best time of year!
Well maybe one other thing...halfway through means it’s time for me to check in with you. How have you been doing with reading, reviewing, or…everything else? I’d like to hear from you. So you know me, I do love me some good form data, so I've set up a survey to ask you a few things about the year so far. Please take a minute to let me know how things are going.
And if something’s been acting weird on the site, or if you see something somewhere else that seems particularly cool, drop me line about that too. I want to hear from you.
Thanks!
--Bonnie (aka "MsWas")
“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” - Fernando Pessoa
Q&A with a Cannonballer: The Book Omnivore
 Which do you find easier to write, the 5 star reviews or 1 star?
That's a very good question. It's certainly much more pleasant to write 5 star reviews but often when I give a 5 star review it's largely because of the way the book made me feel, and it's not always easy to explain in objective terms why that particular book was good. A book I didn't like has usually given me plenty of ammunition. But it sucks to give negative reviews. No matter what my personal opinion of a book was, the author still put a lot of effort into it and I feel bad writing those reviews. Luckily, it doesn't happen very often.
Quick Questions Flashback: Pajiban and Original Cannonballer Brian Prisco shared an AlabamaPink story and a link to his own book in July 2016.
The Book Bingo Reading Challenge
The Book Bingo Reading Challenge is under way! There are lots of comments and questions already on the main post, and watch for monthly check-in posts if you want to ask for or provide recommendations, questions, or cheers.
This Month's Fan Mail
We've been getting a ton of author responses on social media this year. Recently, Charlie Jane Anders commented on Emmalita's review of the essay collection Never Say You Can't Survive.
Let us know if you have anything to submit to our Fan Mail page. Don't forget to tag @cannonballread when you post on social media!
Technical difficulties: Badges
There was a glitch with the badges, and they weren't updating automatically. The problem has been corrected, but now some of the badges need to be manually fixed. If you think your badge levels are incorrect, please give it a week or so in case it's already on our radar, and then let MsWas know if it doesn't get updated.
Style Tip: Spoiler text
Do you want to rant about why an ending sucked? Warn people about the fate of literary pets? Discuss a major plot point for book #2 even though you're reviewing book #7? Here are two options for posting spoilers.
- Go to the toolbar above where you type/paste your review.
- Select the section of text you want to hide.
- Select White as your text color, which will make the text only visible to people who highlight it [green circle above].
- If you don't have an A over a dark line (the tool for changing text color), click on the toolbar toggle icon [red circle] and it should give you the text color tool.
- Alternatively, if you cannot find a text color option on your edit bar, you can click from visual editing to text editing [blue circle] and type <span style="color: #ffffff;"> before your spoiler text and close the spoiler text with </span>.
This tip has also been added to the FAQs, on a suggestion from the last Zoom Check-in. Thanks for the feedback, Dome'Loki!
Suggest a review
Don't forget you can fill out the Suggest a Review form where you can submit a review to (potentially) be featured on our homepage, social media, and the Pajiba Love daily column. We can't guarantee that every suggested review will be featured, but we always want to know what you are excited about!
CBR Event Calendar
You can also check the calendar page on the blog for an overview of upcoming events.
Survey: How's it going so far?
Don't forget to fill out this brief survey and let MsWas know how it's going for you halfway through CBR13!
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July 2021
MsWas's Message Corner
Hi everyone,
We’ve reached the halfway mark for CBR13! Now, how does that make you feel when you read that? Are you psyched because you’ve reviewed this year more than ever before? Or are you panicked because you are behind?
What I hope you are thinking is, “Huzzah it’s bingo time!” Because that’s all it is.
Well maybe one other thing, halfway through means it’s time for me to check in with you. How have you been doing with reading, reviewing, or … everything else? I’d like to hear from you. So you know me, I do love me some good form data, so I've set up a survey to ask you a few things about the year so far. Please take a minute to let me know how things are going.
And if something’s been acting weird on the site, or if you see something somewhere else that seems particularly cool, drop me line about that too. I want to hear from you.
Thanks!
--Bonnie (aka "MsWas")
“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” - Fernando Pessoa
Q&A with a Cannonballer: The Book Omnivore
Which do you find easier to write, the 5 star reviews or 1 star?
That's a very good question. It's certainly much more pleasant to write 5 star reviews but often when I give a 5 star review it's largely because of the way the book made me feel, and it's not always easy to explain in objective terms why that particular book was good. A book I didn't like has usually given me plenty of ammunition. But it sucks to give negative reviews. No matter what my personal opinion of a book was, the author still put a lot of effort into it and I feel bad writing those reviews. Luckily, it doesn't happen very often.
Quick Questions Flashback: Pajiban and Original Cannonballer Brian Prisco shared an AlabamaPink story and a link to his own book in July 2016.
The Book Bingo Reading Challenge
The Book Bingo Reading Challenge is under way! There are lots of comments and questions already on the main post, and watch for monthly check-in posts if you want to ask for or provide recommendations, questions, or cheers.
This Month's Fan Mail
We've been getting a ton of author responses on social media this year. Recently, Charlie Jane Anders commented on Emmalita's review of the essay collection Never Say You Can't Survive.
Let us know if you have anything to submit to our Fan Mail page. Don't forget to tag @cannonballread when you post on social media!
Technical difficulties: Badges
There was a glitch with the badges, and they weren't updating automatically. The problem has been corrected, but now some of the badges need to be manually fixed. If you think your badge levels are incorrect, please give it a week or so in case it's already on our radar, and then let MsWas know if it doesn't get updated.
Style Tip: Spoiler text
Do you want to rant about why an ending sucked? Warn people about the fate of literary pets? Discuss a major plot point for book #2 even though you're reviewing book #7? Here are two options for posting spoilers.
- Go to the toolbar above where you type/paste your review.
- Select the section of text you want to hide.
- Select White as your text color, which will make the text only visible to people who highlight it [green circle above].
- If you don't have an A over a dark line (the tool for changing text color), click on the toolbar toggle icon [red circle] and it should give you the text color tool.
- Alternatively, if you cannot find a text color option on your edit bar, you can click from visual editing to text editing [blue circle] and type <span style="color: #ffffff;"> before your spoiler text and close the spoiler text with </span>.
This tip has also been added to the FAQs, on a suggestion from the last Zoom Check-in. Thanks for the feedback, Dome'Loki!
Suggest a review
Don't forget you can fill out the Suggested Review form where you can submit a review to (potentially) be featured on our homepage, social media, and the Pajiba Love daily column. We can't guarantee that every suggested review will be featured, but we always want to know what you are excited about!
CBR Event Calendar
You can also check the calendar page on the blog for an overview of upcoming events.
Survey: How's it going so far?
Amazingly, it's already July, so how about a mid-year check-in? Please fill out this brief survey and let MsWas know how it's going.
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Jul 13, 2021 10:00 am
Another scary, psychological thriller with an unwell woman at the center. Delta Dawn is a photographer in New York City, and she spends most of her time taking photos of children’s birthday parties having discovered her knack for making children look happy and healthy and like their parents’ dreams. She routinely photoshops images that are less than perfect to fulfill the fantasy these wealthy families pay her to portray. When she meets the Straub family, Delta feels she has found a family. She begins to […]
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Jul 12, 2021 11:10 pm
While I’ve read a few of the other books in this series, I’m not quite caught up, but I’m skipping ahead to this one because I’ve loved the author’s previous work. And look! There’s hockey, ice skating, lots of good food, and a very sweet cinnamon roll Dom. Tom seems to attract all the wrong guys – Doms who don’t treat him right, who equate submission with humiliation. In frustration, he posts an ad at Bold Brew looking for a new Dom, but even with […]
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Jul 12, 2021 06:03 pm
**30 Books in 30 Days** Book 26/30 Ugh, why you gotta ruin a good thing, John and Rob?* Ugh. I don’t know what to think about this series now. I sort of have whiplash. Since I have Vols. 3-5 checked out from the library right now I’ll probably keep going, but with a warier eye now. Ugh. *The writer and artist, respectively. Who, for context, are both white. So basically there are two things ruining my enjoyment here, and I almost two-starred this, but I […]
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Jul 12, 2021 01:06 pm
CBR13 Bingo: Cityscape Best for: Those who like to read very short insights into a lot of different lives. In a nutshell: Journalist Molloy gathers together stories of people who lived in former East Germany, former Czechoslovakia, and Romania under Communist rule. Worth quoting: “I was a communist, and still am today, and I’m of the opinion that communism is a good thing when it’s done right.” “I was opposed to East Germany because it was a dictatorship.” “A couple who remained childless beyond the […]
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Jul 12, 2021 08:32 am
A few reviews of shorter books that I read quickly over the weekend and didn’t have extra time to flesh out… Tonguebreaker ***** Coming to terms with a society that doesn’t want you based on your body…and creating your own space instead…has to be a challenging thing. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha bares her soul to the world in this collection of poems and one-act plays. Her use of language to lecture gripped me and her exploration of what it means to live in this world, to […]
Read More »
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Amanda Howard (aka "Bothari43")
The Cannonball Read Newsletter Editor
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