December 2018
Q&A with a Cannonballer: BlackRaven
How many times have you participated in CBR? Has it changed the way you read?
This is my first CBR. A friend (who has participated in the past) recommended you to me. The change in my reading is I found a few books I never would have read on my own. I may or may not have liked them, but I did enjoy the experience. I also want to read more so I can recommend LOTS more books (as books are a passion of mine.... it's my only real addiction. And chocolate. And cake. And alligator wrestling).
Bingo prize winners

Congratulations to our 38 bingo participants for being reading rock stars, but an especial congratulations to our prize winners! This inaugural bingo year has been great fun, and we are already looking forward to next year's bingo shenanigans. Thoughts to share, or changes to request for next year? Let us know!
Bingo participant raffle winners:
- Caitlin_D – One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus
- LittlePlatt – Pretty Face and Making Up by Lucy Parker
- BlackRaven – gift card from Lucy Parker and book journal
- lowercasesee – Precious Little Sleep book and bookmark by Alexis Dubief
- faintingviolet – 738 Days by Stacey Kade
- mathildehoeg – Sunbolt and Memories of Ash by Intisar Khanani
- vel veeter – Happy Endings graphic novel
- Malin – Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
- Debcapsfan – Cannonball Read tote with goodies
- narfna – Weird Girl and What’s His Name by Meagan Brothers
- crystalclear – Debbie Harry Sings in French, Supergirl Mixtapes, and Weird Girl and What’s His Name by Meagan Brothers
- Ellesfena – In Pieces by Sally Field
- Melanir – Why Kill the Innocent by C. S. Harris
Sayonara to CBR10, Salutations to CBR11

The tenth anniversary year has been a blast, yes? Sadly, the end is rapidly approaching. It's all over (and the site will close for maintenance and year-end wrap-up) at 12 noon EST on December 31.
Would you like to see if we can make CBR11 just as much fun? Sign up now! Full, half, quarter, or the full vel veeter: sign up for whatever you're comfortable with. And if you didn't reach your goal this year, don't fret. Review Amnesty is your friend, nobody's here to judge, and every little bit counts.
And just to make sure you're not getting bored after 10 years of Cannonballing, we're always looking for ways to improve. For example, we've just added a new Speculative Fiction category. If you wrote a previous review that fits in this genre, you can go back and check off this category. Always remember to tag your posts with the author's name and at least one book category. If you're not sure, every book fits either into fiction or non-fiction at the very least.
Best and Worst
Now the fun part! Or the hard part? What were your top three books this year? Which book would you like to launch into the sun? Fill out your picks (with links) here by midnight EST on Tuesday, December 18, 2018, and MsWas will compile the always-popular best and worst list for CBR10.
Giving Tuesday

Book Exchange
If you've signed up for this year's Book Exchange, don't forget your goodies are supposed to be mailed out by December 13 - that's today! So if you're going to be late, please let faintingviolet know. When you receive a package, please post a picture of what you got, and tag it Book Exchange, so we can all share vicariously in the fun stuff. (Mark the Quantity field as 0 to keep your Leaderboard score correct).
If you're not a current participant but are still in the Book Exchange, please post a picture and a brief thank-you somewhere on CBR social media.
If you have questions about the Book Exchange, check out the details, or just search for the Book Exchange tag and see what everybody else is up to.
Cannon Fodder fodder
Are there topics you'd like to see covered in the newsletter? Any concerns/comments/suggestions? Let us know in this brief survey, and hopefully the newsletter will be even better for CBR11. Thanks for your feedback and for reading!
And while you're in the survey mood, don't forget our Book Club survey is still up! Any requests or suggestions about #CannonBookClub for next year? Chime in by the end of this week so we can get planning.
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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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