Greetings Cannonballers,

March has come in like a lion for folks on the US East Coast, so hopefully there will be a lot of reviews forthcoming from folks who were stuck at home with nothing to do but shovel and READ. 

CBR Book Club on March 9

This Monday, March 9 is the CBR Book Club discussion of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. At 10:00 a.m., a post will go up on the group blog, and discussion will follow in the comments. Many thanks to faintingviolet for taking the lead on this discussion and moderating comments. Hope to "see" you all on Monday morning!

Free Book Giveaway (for Canadians)

Thanks to our note about the discussion in a recent Pajiba Love column, a Canadian fan of Pajiba and CBR was able to coordinate a book giveaway of Station Eleven through HarperCollins Canada for Canadian Cannonballers and friends. Check out my post about the offer to find out the many ways you can increase your entries, or just go to this link at Rafflecopter.com to enter. The drawing is on March 11, and it is only available to folks living in Canada. You don't have to be registered for CBR to win, though, so feel free to send the link to friends and family in the Great White North.

First CBR7 Donation

I'm so happy to let you know that not only have we been able to pay in full for this year's website hosting, revenue generated from Amazon.com has allowed us to make a $150.00 donation to the American Cancer Society. This includes December 2014 purchases on Amazon, which apparently included some big ticket items. Don't forget, ANYTHING you order on Amazon after visiting our affiliate link will generate revenue. So if you're still in the market for snow shovels or (eek!) a generator, or if you're searching for bathing suits and sunscreen, it all helps, not just books. We're also accruing funds at an exceptional rate this year through our Google Ads, so please make sure that you click one or two every so often. 

Leaderboard

Janniethestrange is in the lead so far with 37 reviews posted. Check out the numbers at the Leaderboard. And speaking of the Leaderboard, at this point it is not automated. You need to go and update your book total on your profile page. My investigation into making this automated has lead to the following possibility - if everyone writes one post per book, I can automate the Leaderboard. But I have not done so yet since some people prefer to post multiple links to reviews on their own blog in a single post. So I can't just count the number of posts you write. I'm hesitant to make this change before getting your thoughts, however. To gauge opinion on this change, I've set up an online poll where you can vote. You can also visit our Facebook page to vote or contact me. Please let me know your thoughts either way by March 13.

Author Interactions

We've had some fantastic comments from authors so far this year. 

• Larry Edwards tweeted thanks to genericwhitegirl for her review of his memoir Dare I Call It Murder
• Sarah Mayberry tweeted to faintingviolet about her book The Other Side of Us
• Jandy Nelson thanked Scootsa1000 for her review of I’ll Give You the Sun
• Anthony Rivera commented on emmalita’s review of the anthology Death's Realm, which he edited; and Karen Runge, one of the authors, gave emmalita a shout out about this book, her first experience with a horror novel.
• Carine McCandless thanked Sophia for her review of her memoir,  The Wild Truth, on our Facebook page.
• Richard Kadrey thanked emmalita for her review of Sandman Slim
• Laura Florand thanked Mrs. Julien for her review of Once Upon a Rose
• Courtney Milan commented on the group blog on Mrs. Julien’s review of Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare, which started a Twitter discussion on the property rights of unmarried women in regency England and the pitfalls and benefits of a critical brain. Check out the full discussion in our Storify compilation.
• Samantha Kane thanked faintingviolet for her review of Cherry Pie
• Wendy C. Ortiz thanked A.Winfree for her review of Stranger Than Fiction – An Unflinching Memoir

Keep up the good work folks, and please mention @cannonballread or #CBR7 on Twitter so we can see too! Also don't forget to vote in the poll on the Leaderboard change. 

Good luck and Happy Reading! 

Bonnie Wasielewski (aka "Mswas")
Coordinator of The Cannonball Read
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“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” ― Dr. Seuss