Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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About GentleRain

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Your jack of all trades eccentric. Knows a little about a lot and a lot about a little. Tends to mainly read non-fiction (history, true crime, old gossip, etc), SF/F, horror, graphic novels, "genre" books. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: GentleRain's Quick Questions interview.)

GentleRain's Reviews:

The Original “Poor Little Rich Girl”

Million Dollar Baby by Philip Van Rensselaer

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I spent half of this book wondering if I’d read it before but enjoying it so much I dashed through it in about a day. It is very entertaining and readable, and you can understand why Barbara Hutton took on Philip as a companion. He is a fun narrator and gets across emotion and events very well. Million Dollar Baby is a biography of Barbara Hutton and a memoir the time that Van Rensselaer spent with her in the late 1950s. It is not at […]

“We’ll continue to hurt others and be hurt in the future too. And one day, something even worse might happen…We have a chance to change things for the better. If we raise a smart and courageous child.”

A Smart and Courageous Child by Miki Yamamoto

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It’s always thrilling to me to see a publisher trying something new, and Tokyopop publishing A Smart and Courageous Child strikes me as a bold move. They are not usually the publisher you expect to do literary manga, and finding this in the bookstore made my day. I am constantly pining for American publishers to translate more manga like this, aimed at adults and dealing with everyday life. There’s so much manga in Japan that is probably never going to get translated here, so anything […]

“Better to regret trying something than to regret never doing anything at all!” — Sweet High School Romances

Hoteri Hotette First Kiss by Coco Uzuki

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This is a very sweet volume of four short stories, each centering around high schoolers having their first kiss and first relationships. There is a nice variety of relationships offered here, from two shy nerds to a cool upperclassman and a serious girl in a calligraphy club. Each of them has to work their way through misunderstandings and nerves to get to the first kiss. I liked that after the first kiss, the continuing development of the relationships was shown and the importance of communication […]

“After more than a year here, I feel like I’ve seen what I needed to see.”

Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle

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This was a reread, as I’ve been doing a lot this week (going through bookshelves in your childhood home will do that to you). I enjoyed it and will keep it for the collection. I’ve read several of Guy Delisle’s travelogues and always like his point of view on things and the way he portrays his travels. I may not always agree with his conclusions or philosophy, but his clean linework and the way he interacts with the world make these volumes satisfying and thought […]

“I hope you’ll stay here a long time” — Heartwarming Victorian Historical Manga

Shirley by Kaoru Mori

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This is a sweet collection of manga short stories about maids during the Victorian era. Kaoru Mori’s art is so beautiful and fine that this is a delight to read. I love her eye for detail and emotion — I’m always a sucker for someone who can convey deep emotion in just a few lines, and she has that ability. I also appreciate her focus on historical details, as this era is in my zone of interest. This is fiction and has a gentle tone […]

Sometimes Books You Loved as a Teen Don’t Age Well

The Dead Boy Detectives by Jill Thompson

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I have very mixed feelings about this book upon rereading it as an adult. I remember loving this in high school and came across my old copy when I was home for the holidays. While this was written and illustrated by Jill Thompson, it is based off the Sandman characters by Neil Gaiman and he consulted on it. I’m not someone who will never read work by an author accused of awful crimes because I feel like it can better inform my understanding of the […]



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