Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About Jenny S

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By day (and night really), I teach writing and run a writing center at a community college in the Chicago suburbs. However, my superpowers include racking up large library fines and creating towering stacks of to-read books next to my bed.

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Magical Realism and Baked Goods

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber

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As I come off of winter break and into the craziness of a new semester, I’ve been drawn to books that are a bit lighter in tone, to balance out the more serious stuff I’m reading for work.  I’m looking for things that go down easy and don’t tax my brain or require intense concentration.  Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber provided just the mix of magical realism and baked goods that I needed. This novel tells the story of two daughters who […]

It Was Kind of Different So She Never Read it Again

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal

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Though I am not from Minnesota, I have spent some quality time living there—in college and then afterwards so reading this was both fun and a little nostalgic.  The small details, both comical and kind, are what really make these characters come alive.  Also, I was already missing spending quality time inside my town’s two local nano-breweries and this made me miss them even more (even as I drink their beverages at home). This novel tells the story of two sisters, Edith and Helen, whose […]

Be Yourself, The World Will Adjust

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

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This trans coming-of-age story was a great way to jumpstart my reading in 2021.  It is the story of Felix Love, an aspiring artist who dreams of attending Brown University.  He and his best friend, Ezra Patel, attend St. Catherine’s, a private New York high school.  While Ezra’s family is insanely wealthy, Felix is a scholarship student who now lives in Harlem with his dad, who works multiple jobs to help pay for the remaining costs of Felix’s education. Felix’s dad has been very supportive […]

Getting Myself Ready for Stamped from the Beginning

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi

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This review begins with a story. So more than two years ago, I heard Ibram X. Kendi talking on NPR about his book, Stamped from the Beginning, and I knew immediately that I wanted to read it.   About six months later I bought it but it has been sitting on my to-read pile ever since—mainly because it’s a bit intimidating at 608 pages with extremely small type, but also my to-read pile is large. Flash forward to late last summer and I heard Kendi on […]

Stakes Get Higher and the Empire Gets More Evil

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

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I read, An Ember in the Ashes, the first book of Sabaa Tahir’s fantasy series while on vacation in January and it hit all my fantasy sweet spots.  It was nice to know that I had two more books to go before I caught up and had to wait like everybody else for Book 4. A Torch Against the Night picks up right where the first book left off—with Laia and Elias trying to escape the city of Serra through underground tunnels with the goal […]



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