March 2019
MsWas's Message Corner
Greetings Cannonballers,
I hope you’ve seen all of the great Good Omens promo material out there, like the official trailer, Tori Preston’s article on Pajiba about the revelations from the SXSW panel, not to mention the other promos at SXSW like the choir of nuns, adorable hellhounds, and the riders of the apocalypse. And if you haven’t already, you can follow Neil Gaiman on Twitter and Instagram for more Good Omens goodies. I'm so psyched for our first #CannonBookClub of the year! And faintingviolet has great things planned for our clubs later this year. Find out more and cast your vote!
I got a great question recently asking whether it’s ok to review a book you did not finish, and I’ll tell you the answer: yes! Yes, you can review something you didn’t finish. Be up front in the review that you haven’t finished it, and tell us why (make sure it’s 250+ words). For CBR we trust that you’re going to write a good faith review. And honestly, telling people why you ditched it, and warning them away, can sometimes make the best reviews.
Keep those questions coming, so I can keep adding to the FAQ. I love to hear from you; and if there are any problems with the site or otherwise, I want to know.
Take care and Happy Reading!
MsWas
Q&A with a Cannonballer: xoxoxo e
Has CBR changed the way you read?
It's made me feel part of a community - and I love the idea of so many of us reading, reading, reading for such a great cause - and sharing opinions. I'm all about opinions. I also like reading other Cannonballer reviews - of books or genres I might not have considered reading before.
Upcoming first quarter donation
Talking about quarterly donations sounds so corporate, doesn't it? Due to the fiduciary stability of the aforementioned nonprofit organization and the enthusiastic participation and support of its content creators and users, we are on track to make a $150 donation to the American Cancer Society for the first quarter of 2019.
There's still time to increase that number, if you donate before Sunday, March 31!
Good Omens
The first #CannonBookClub of the year will be May 17-18, and we are reading Good Omens, the masterpiece by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. And bonus! We're going to follow that up with a Facebook Live event in the group chat June 14-15, discussing the hotly anticipated TV adaptation, which premieres on Amazon on May 31. If you're not already part of the Facebook group, join us!
Coming soon for #CannonBookClub
Good Omens has inspired us, with its beloved book and soon-to-be-beloved show. For the fall book club, we'll read a classic WITH its adaptation/retelling. So this one will have two books and two discussions, the first (classic) on August 16-17 and the second (retelling) on September 20-21. Find out more and cast your vote! The survey closes Monday, April 1, so be sure to share your thoughts this week.
Survey results
Thank you to everyone who completed our recent newsletter survey! You don't have to wait for a survey to let us know what you think; contact us any time if you have questions or suggestions. It sounds like some people are still having occasional trouble with newsletters going to spam folders, so make sure mswas@cannonballread.com and newsletter@cannonballread.com are in your address book, so you never miss any of the excitement!
Style Tip: uncategorized
If you're one of those who saves a review as a draft and then has to wait and publish until your brat cat mascot is feeling photogenic (hypothetically), and you forget to select a category when you go in and publish, Wordpress automatically checks "uncategorized" as the category. Or if you've got all your ducks in a row and publish immediately, but still forget to check a category, you get uncategorized.
Even if you go back in and correct it later with the appropriate category, you still have to deselect "uncategorized." Remember your categories and tags! That helps people find your reviews, and helps with interesting analytics and stats later on.
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Feb 27, 2021 02:04 pm
Why is it so hard to write decent political fiction? Can someone answer that question for me, please? There’s a glut of mystery, romance and science fiction novels. Why is it so hard to write about politics? Is it just because we often read for escapism, and politics is part of what we are trying to escape? Perhaps. But given the drama, high stakes, and many opinions contained in stories about politics, I don’t understand why it isn’t a more fertile ground for fiction. Steven […]
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Feb 27, 2021 11:27 am
Born in 1875, Edgar Rice Burroughs worked a number of odd jobs until, at the age of 35, he decided to pick up writing. Recalling in 1929 that, “if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten.” So, in 1911, he started writing what would go on to become A Princess of Mars, the first book in his Barsoom series. Shortly thereafter, he would go on to create Tarzan – […]
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Feb 27, 2021 10:34 am
Like many others I was totally taken by the sheer force of a movie that was The Commitments back in 1991. Maybe it was the story about a band – soul music never sounded so good on a silver screen. Or perhaps due to living in Edinburgh at the time: I was practically almost next door to Dublin where The Commitments was happening. At least, it felt like it, coming from the early 1990s Finland, after the Cold War, after the collapse of Soviet Union, Finland […]
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Feb 26, 2021 09:24 pm
I read two great gritty urban mystery reads this past week. Both uniquely told in their own way but both addressing the politics and social systems of Atlanta and Los Angeles respectively in a way that I found compelling… Paper God (TW and minor spoiler: Book has a trans character in which a threat of violence is implied and a tragic love story is involved. Nothing happens to them but it’s also not the most trans-positive story) I’ve read a lot about Atlanta this past […]
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Feb 26, 2021 07:45 pm
Growing up, my dad had a sizable collection of books written by Louis L’Amour. They were all part of a matching set, with brown leatherette covers (hey, you can still buy them). I always liked the look of them, taking up the bottom shelf of the family bookcase. For a while, in my teens, I blew through them, and remember finding them enjoyable. This time? Not so much. Louis L’Amour published 100 novels and over 250 short stories in his long career, and is as […]
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Amanda Howard (aka "Bothari43")
The Cannonball Read Newsletter Editor
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