Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About esme

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Loves to read. Loves to travel. Doesn't get to do either enough.

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…kurou, which could be translated to ‘suffering’

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara

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BINGO!!!! Bingo tile: monster; the first big monster is the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans from (primarily) the West Coast and the subsequent theft of their property by white Americans; the second monster would spoil the mystery, but is monstrous! In Clark and Division, Naomi Hirahara crafts a mildly diverting mystery and, more compellingly, a moving portrait of the tremendous challenges facing Japanese and Japanese Americans post-Pearl Harbor. Aki Ito, her parents, and her older sister, Rose, are forcibly interned in Manzanar after Pearl […]

“Only problem is, he also has a terrible case of…the frets.”

Stuntboy, In the Meantime by Jason Reynolds

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Bingo tile: Star (I know, I know, but I am determined to Bingo this year!) both for the amazing production on this auidobook and because Zola and Portico are stars I am doing something(s) completely different (for me) with this book, so let’s see how it goes! I am reviewing a kids book that I listened to with my son (who is 9), and I will do my best to reflect my experience and what I heard from him. Stuntboy, In the Meantime, by Jason […]

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

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Although I saw all of the rave reviews (‘saw’, not ‘read’), it took me a while to get this lovely novella. Part of the blame is on my library system, as it took several months before All Systems Red, by Martha Wells, was available, but mostly the blame lies with me. Although I have read some fantastic science fiction over the years, I am very cautious when it comes to this genre – perhaps because my older brother was a huge sci-fi nerd? (Certainly he […]

“Tea had featured heavily in the past fortnight. Miriam sometimes felt her belly sloshing with it, like a waterbed”

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

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Scandal – a very British scandal, stiff upper lip, what will the neighbors say? I stumbled across Susie Steiner, the author of the DS Manon Bradshaw series, when I read of her death, July 2nd, in the Guardian (and, by the way, this is an enjoyable obituary, if an obituary can be said to be ‘enjoyable’! https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/13/susie-steiner-obituary). Steiner was a former journalist who lived with retinitis pigmentosa and succumbed, at the very premature age of 51, to brain cancer. The obituary notes that Ms. Steiner […]

“He wants to punch something, but he knows that would do nothing but bust his knuckles. Having that much sense makes him feel old.”

The Searcher by Tara French

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So this is the first time I am participating in Bingo and I am so excited! I love the card and I have finished a few books, so I am ready to go…. I was out of the ‘mystery’ frame of mind for some time. I think, for a while, I was concerned that many mystery series that I enjoyed portrayed police officers in a way that didn’t sit well with me given so much police inaction and violent action around the US, where I […]

“He had light enough to make heroes of them all.”

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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I knew how this was going to end – of course I did – and yet I went willingly with Patroclus and Achilles towards their doom and my ugly crying. I may have mentioned in earlier reviews that I have trouble slowing down and savoring books, but I was in luck with this gorgeous book because my child and husband were camping and canoeing in the Boundary Waters, so I had a glorious week to nibble at this book and delight in turns of phrase, […]



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