Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

About vega-table

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Seattle area hermit, staying in with my video games, books, cats, and beer. Living the dream.

vega-table's Reviews:

You know how the story ends

The Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda

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Cbr18 Bingo – Wealth: It portrays graphic depictions of the events and people who caused the French revolution. The Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda is usually the story of Marie Antoinette. As the story progressed, her bodyguard Oscar went from the deuteragonist to co-protagonist to protagonist. The reader is expected to know Marie Antoinette’s story ends with execution and the French Revolution. If you didn’t know, it tells you. We see her grow up as the queen of France. She gambles, has kids, and […]

There’s a good reason for bikini armor

Heathen by Natasha Alterici, Ashley A. Woods

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Cbr18 Bingo – Craft: the main character crafted a Viking helmet with horns because she’s a heathen. (They’re antlers, but take that, Christians.) There are watercraft. Storytelling and story listening are both important to the narrative. Heathen is a comic book by Natasha Alterici, Ashley A. Woods, et al. I don’t know enough to say if it’s based on Norse mythology or not, but I know enough to say the story is based in it. It takes place a long time ago, but not that […]

Everyone but the chihuahua is a suspect

The Sleeping Sisters by Jennifer Givhan

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CBR18 Bingo – Or: I can read about violence against women or… violence against women. I started The Bone Thief by Vanessa Lillie when I decided I wasn’t up for a mystery so dependent on real world violence against indigenous women and people. Then I jumped into this book like an idiot because I liked the cover. It was too late to go back by the time I realized Jennifer Givhan’s The Sleeping Sisters was inspired by the unsolved West Mesa Murders. I was hooked […]

Unextreme Utena

Revolutionary Girl Utena by Chiho Saito

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CBR18 Bingo – Justice: it’s about a girl who fights for what she believes is just, instead of just being a normal girl who doesn’t need to duel. Because it’s not normal (or just) for middle school girls to duel for their life all the goddamn time. Revolutionary Girl Utena is one of my favorite animes and I had no interest in ever reading the manga because I was not interested in the story without all the things that the manga cut. That all changed […]

Russians created Pushkin, Rachmaninoff, and Petrushka the homicidal puppet. What could Sesame Street teach them?

Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia by Natasha Lance Rogoff

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CBR18 Bingo – Middle: Between 1st world problems and 3rd world problems, there is Sesame Street. I mean, there are 2nd world problems. This book is about Russia’s problems after the collapse of the 2nd world and Sesame Street, with the author in the middle of the storm. Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia was written a few years ago as Natasha Lance Rogoff’s memoir. The Soviet Union ended in 1991. Sesame Street was already global, so […]

All Stories are Ghost Stories

House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

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CBR18 Bingo – Left: A sinister story about what’s left after violence. House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias is a novel-length version of the ‘dig two graves before getting revenge’ saying. Or the one about how eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. Or any other comparable adage, which I’m sure exists. There can’t just be two ways of saying that revenge is not worth it. The book is mostly narrated by Gabe. Gabe and his friends are like brothers. They’re […]



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