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October 2022
MsWas's Message Corner
As the year is turning towards its close, I’m looking forward to next year and Cannonball Read FIFTEEN! What a milestone! We’ve got some great things planned already for next year, but I’d like to hear from you! Please drop me a line any time via the contact form with any suggestions, complaints, or tips about the website and the things we do for CBR. Or contact me about anything else! I do love to hear from you all, even if it is with a problem or question. I really do!
--Bonnie (aka "MsWas")
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.” – Groucho Marx
Quick Questions with a Cannonballer: tiny_bookbot
What’s your favorite piece of literature (or theory, technique, etc.) to teach to your college students?
My favorite authors to teach are probably Charlotte Brontë and Virginia Woolf. Jane Eyre is of course a book with some plot elements that really raise our eyebrows (Edward Fairfax Rochester what ARE you doing?!) but those same elements are what help it to teach well, because it gives us real stuff to dig into and discuss. Also, Brontë burns through loads of plot, which hooks my students, while also having real religious and ethical concerns at stake, too. Woolf, meanwhile, seduces so many of my upper-level students who encounter her for the first time: the prose is so lyrical and lovely, and she has such a deep love of the everyday and quotidian: Mrs Ramsay’s dinner scene in To the Lighthouse brings them joy every time.
See what else tiny_bookbot has to say »
Quick Questions Flashback: Six years ago, faintingviolet had been a CBR participant for five years. Now we don't know what we'd do without her!
New Cannonball Read Discord Channel
Cannonball Read now has a Discord channel! Sometimes it's tricky to gush/rant/obsess over books in the comment section due to spoilers. Discord will be a way to get into the nitty-gritty details of a book without totally derailing one book review. Right now, we're starting out with two channels for talking about Tamsyn Muir’s The Locked Tomb. One channel is all spoilers all the time and the other is spoiler free. There's also a channel for all things Murderbot! Check it out here, and let Emmalita know what other channels you'd like to see.
Bingo Check-in: Two Weeks to Go!
Our fifth Book Bingo Reading Challenge ends at midnight, 12pm EST, on November 14. Until then, check in and see how things are going!
Coming Soon
Unbelievably, we're coming to the end of CBR14 already. Start gathering your three best and one worst books of 2022 - MsWas will be asking soon!
Also, the annual Holiday Book Exchange will be sending out sign-up information soon, so start thinking about participating in that. If you've never participated before, it's low pressure and a lot of fun!
Registration for CBR15 (our quinceañera!) will open in early December, so we'll see you back here next year. Same book time, same book channel!
Facebook Fundraisers and Other Donation Ideas
If you're are on Facebook, you probably get fundraiser notices for birthdays, holidays, etc. LinkedIn has something similar with survey participation, where you can earn $5 or so for participating. Did you know you can add Cannonball Read as the recipient for those fundraisers? Just another way to throw another donation our way!
CBR Diversion: Spooky Books!
Do you read specific books for Halloween/fall? Are you more of a straight horror fan, or do you look for a cozy mystery with witches? Or do you land somewhere in between?
Visit the latest CBR Diversion and tell us about your favorite scary, creepy, or seasonal books and why you like them.
Style Tip: Custom Excerpt
An excerpt is the short snippet of text from the beginning of your review that displays in the list of reviews on the home page or any category or author page. A custom excerpt can be useful if your review has a spoiler or something else you don't want to reveal before users click.
CannonballRead.com uses the first 100 words of your review, and according to WordPress, "...the auto-generated excerpt will begin with whatever text is at the start of your post." So if you start your book review with, "Can y'all BELIEVE they killed Charlotte in Charlotte's Web???? I mean, her name is in the title! How can she die?!?" That's what's going to show up on the website and our RSS feed. (Using a spoiler bar in the post unfortunately does not outwit the excerpt function.)
So if you'd like to test your Twitter-writing skills (excerpts are limited to 100 characters), or be nice and hide spoilers, or just become even more of a WordPress master, check out all the no-code-necessary changes you can make with excerpts.
ARC Giveaway: Children's Book Edition
 Timmy is Resilient, Patti Demma
Timmy hears a loud noise that scared him, and now he can't stop thinking about it. The next day at school, Timmy's friends help him remember some tips the teacher taught them to feel resilient, and he learns how to bounce back in tough times.
This story about Timmy's journey towards resiliency includes examples of self-calming tools for children and adults.
To take advantage of this offer, please contact MsWas.
This Month's Fan Mail
Author Maud Newton gave a Twitter thanks to Booktrovert for her five-star review of Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and A Reconciliation.
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 - it helps others find us, and helps us find you to include you on the page!
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