July/August 2018
Q&A with a Cannonballer: lowercasesee
How many times have you participated in CBR? Has it changed the way you read?
I started CBR6 but only got a handful of books in before I fell by the wayside. I guess I’d almost consider this my first real CBR. I feel that I remember more of what I read now because I’m focused on the review, but I also extra hate bad books because it lingers with me until I get the review out. I’ve been a voracious reader my whole life, I’m grateful that CBR has me more carefully considering what I feed my brain.
Book Bingo!
The Bingo Reading Challenge is here! Select five squares across, down, diagonally, or 5-up (four corners + center square), and get an entry into a drawing for some cool prizes including autographed books and a CBR10 tote. Complete the entire card – a blackout! – and get 15 entries into our drawing. Check out the rules and squares, and then you've got until 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday November 30, 2018. Ready, set....read!
Stats
The tireless ingres77 is back with Stats Thus Far. Only 76 science fiction books this year?? Inconceivable! But we're up to more than 20,000 reviews in the CBR Database (ooh, fancy!), so go forth and be impressed with yourselves!
American Cancer Society donation
A little history, a lotta shade
Ten years ago, a little friendly competition between Pajiba commenters blossomed into the Cannonball Read. AlabamaPink was one of the founders, and in her very first CBR review, she praised Edward Gorey and heckled Brian Prisco. As we celebrate our 10th year of reviews, we are proud to continue those traditions, reviewing stuff and heckling Prisco and his overachieving podcast. Show-off.
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Aug 02, 2018 01:53 am
Earlier this year I read another one of Christina Henry’s novels, The Mermaid, which is also a reimagining of a classic story or myth (in that case, of PT Barnum’s infamous Feejee Mermaid). While it was a good read though not super captivating, upon looking at some of Henry’s other works, I was drawn in by a series of covers for the UK versions of her various novels to date, which included this one pictured for Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook. And you know the junior-high version of myself always rears her little head to get intrigued by any […]
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Aug 02, 2018 12:22 am
While Alyssa Cole isn’t on my auto-buy list of authors*, I’m always going to check out her new releases. She writes stories with smart, engaging characters that I like spending time with. I enjoyed A Princess in Theory so much that I pre-ordered A Duke by Default as soon as it was available. I swallowed this book whole, you guys. Flighty rich girl Portia, Ledi’s friend from Theory, runs away from New York to take up a swordmaking apprenticeship in Scotland. Her master is grumpy bastard Tavish McKenzie, a man barely keeping his head above water trying to keep his […]
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Aug 01, 2018 11:34 pm
I was a latecomer to This is Us; I knew the show was a critical and commercial success but I didn’t begin watching the first season until they were nearly halfway through airing season two. Chrissy Metz has received a lot of well deserved praise for her role as Kate Pearson (although I absolutely cannot stand her character’s now husband, Toby) and has parlayed her newfound success into a memoir. Metz is a phenomenal actor and it is hard to believe that This is Us is only her second major screen credit, the first being American Horror Story, but it […]
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Aug 01, 2018 11:28 pm
According to Goodreads I shelved When Breath Becomes Air on December 6, 2016 so it is a pretty clear choice for the Backlog bingo square. “What makes life meaningful enough to go on living?” Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer at the age of thirty-six just as he was completing his decade’s long training to be a neurosurgeon. He had felt for months he may have cancer but put off getting any scans done until his back pain became unbearable. Paul had an interesting take on being a cancer patient because he had spent years being the […]
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Aug 01, 2018 11:22 pm
I added Shrabani Basu’s Victoria and Abdul to my TBR last year after seeing the previews for the Judy Dench film of the same name and becoming intrigued by the relationship between the Indian and the Queen of England. Coincidentally I found a copy on Overdrive at the same time the film showed up on HBO making it the perfect The Book Was Better bingo book. Especially since the book really was better than the film. Abdul Karim was a clerk at the county jail in Agra, India when he was requested to serve Queen Victoria, Empress of India, at […]
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Amanda Howard (aka "Bothari43")
The Cannonball Read Newsletter Editor
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