June 2018
Q&A with a Cannonballer: Jen K
How many times have you participated in CBR? Has it changed the way you read?
I did the first six, wrote one review for CBR 8, and then fell incredibly behind. Recently, I have noticed two changes in my reading habits. The first was due to my shift to reading almost exclusively on my iPad/Kindle app. At first, I only used it to read novels didn’t think I wanted/needed physical copies of so I started reading a lot more romance and urban fantasy series. While now I read everything on there, I used to space books in a series a lot more while now I tend to go straight from one to the other because they are so easily available. The other change is that since I wasn’t buying physical books anymore, I wasn’t going into bookstores as often and wasn’t keeping up with what was new at all. Being involved in CBR again has allowed me see what books I have been missing out on and get new ideas for reading material from everyone else’s reviews.
#CannonBookClub - We talked about Kindred
The #CannonBookClub discussed Octavia Butler's Kindred last week, with loads of robust discussion and the keen insight we've come to expect from Cannonballers. The book was chosen because of its status as one of the most-reviewed books in CBR history, in honor of CBR's 10th anniversary. If you've just finishing up Kindred, you can still read and comment on the discussion post or in the CBR Facebook group. You know how we all love to talk books! Thank you to all who participated, and we look forward to discussing Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson with you in November.
Welcome, mid-year newbies!
A recent Pajiba Advice column (don't you love those?) talked about writing, and being a writer who isn't currently writing, and all the related angst that comes from writers block and thinking you're not good enough and all those brainweasels. Multiple commenters recommended Cannonball Read as a way to spur folks to read more, write more, and have a (hopefully) low-stress, achievable goal. For those who want to sign up for CBR mid-year, let MsWas know and she can help you sort out registration. For those of you who have just joined us, welcome! Please see emmalita's compilation of tips for new Cannonballers, and don't forget Review Amnesty if you fall a bit behind. Don't forget to join us on social media. And as always, please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions!
Profile check
CBR10 instituted some cool new features, including the automatic Leaderboard update. However, in every new technical thing, a few bugs must fall. Keep an eye on the Leaderboard, your review total, and the book number field, and make sure everything matches your records. Also, the new comment badges are being a little wonky, so if you're not getting full credit for all your thoughtful comments, never fear! It's being addressed. Just remember that you must be logged in to get credit for your comments. If you see any additional strangeness or discrepancies, contact MsWas.
Are we in your address book?
Do you have MsWas in your email address book? How about the newsletter? We'd hate to think you're missing out on any of our exciting updates and info, so make sure mswas@cannonballread.com and newsletter@cannonballread.com are in your address book, so we're flagged as trusted correspondents instead of unsavory tinned meats.
MsWas reviews
What do you suppose the length of an average Cannonballer's To Be Read list is? Dozens? Hundreds? It's an intimidating thought, and this won't help: MsWas has written her review of the third of the the Kage Baker series about "The Company", Mendoza in Hollywood. Spoiler alert: her reviews will definitely add to your TBR pile. Thanks a lot, MsWas!
Looking for a summertime hobby?
Classic revived our Goodreads group, but needs help for the summer. If you like books (duh) and Cannonballers (double duh), this could be the perfect opportunity to get a little more involved in our lovely community. Let us know if you're feeling volunteery!
Style Tip: Editing a post's URL
Did you know you can specify the title of your post? If you don't tell Wordpress a specific link title, it will default to whatever the post title is. So, If I title a post "Oh my god this was so great everybody told me it was wonderful I don't know why I waited so long to read it and now I have to sing its praises to the world," then the link to my post would be:
https://cannonballread.com/2018/05/Oh-my-god-this-was-so-great-everybody-told-me-it-was-wonderful-I-don't-know-why-I-waited-so-long-to-read-it-and-now-I-have-to-sing-its-praises-to-the-world.com.
A mouthful, right? But! You can go in and edit the URL, and make it say whatever you want, like:
https://cannonballread.com/2018/05/harrypotter
Just fill in the Permalink text box at the top of your post draft. Say I use a longer quote for my review title. Then the link ends up like this:
You can change these auto-generated titles to whatever you want, like so:
Which then becomes this:
These less unwieldy titles (wieldy?) make it easier to share reviews on social media and Pajiba Love. As always, please let us know if you have any questions!
CBR10 gear
The reports and pictures are coming in about our #CBR10 t-shirts and goodies, and people are saying it's good quality, fun stuff. Have you gotten yours yet? If so, post and tag with #CBR10 or @cannonballread for all the world to see!
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Jun 18, 2018 01:00 pm
I got this book from my Kindle Unlimited subscription. It is marked as being for grades 8 and up. In The Hundreth Queen, Kalinda is an 18 year old girl growing up in a temple of sisters. She’s had fevers all of her life, which the healer in the temple “cures” them by giving her a daily tonic. The temple is visited by the rajah, the ruler in the community who has 99 wives. He chooses Kalinda to be his 100th. It is necessary for me to include a trigger warning for this book: the rajah is not a nice […]
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Jun 18, 2018 12:14 pm
Who among us would ever have thought that Reese Witherspoon would end up being one of the most supportive voices in the world of women authors? It turns out that now I’ve read three of her picks, and ended up really impressed with two of them. Well done, Reese. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows was her pick for March, and it really wasn’t on my radar until leedock reviewed it last week, but after reading that, I went out and got it the same day. I read this in two sittings, and honestly, could not put it down. I didn’t […]
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Jun 18, 2018 08:48 am
I’m combining my reviews for Company Town and Autonomous for a couple of reasons. 1. Both stories happen in the future 2. Both stories take place in Canada 3. Both authors have won awards for their books 4. The authors have appeared together on panels to discuss their work, where they are often likely to discuss human/robot sex, for reasons which will become clear in this review. Writing about the future is a broad topic and goes by a lot of descriptors—science fiction, utopian/dystopian fiction, speculative fiction—there are many choices and fine shades of meaning even amongst the writers who work in these genres. […]
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Jun 18, 2018 06:43 am
Episode 1-23: Sometimes Your Words Just Hypnotize Me Wherein I review: 88. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis 89. Don’t Let Go by Harlan Coben 90. Wolf Lake (Dave Gurney #5) by John Verdon I read a university literary romp where I hate every character, then I travel to New Jersey for a decades long murder mystery involving an old Nike Missile base, and then we go on the worst vacation since Ed Helms’ mistake with Dave Gurney that involves hypnotism and completely abandoning your previous character development for the sake of plot.
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Jun 18, 2018 12:12 am
3.5 stars out of 5! Round 3 of my adventures in hockey romance this year, and Him has definitely been the best one so far! Am I going to read the sequel for it, titled Us? Mmm, I’m not so sure yet. But potentially. Him is a m/m romance between two long-time hockey bros, Jamie and Wes, who became fast friends over the years, spending their summers at hockey camp together, until after an awkward interaction things suddenly went cold between them. A few years later back at camp though, with one of the boys out and gay, and the other questioning, they find […]
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Amanda Howard (aka "Bothari43")
The Cannonball Read Newsletter Editor
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