Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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The man, the myth, the nonsense

The Boy Who Became a Parrot: A Foolish Biography of Edward Lear Who Invented Nonsense by Wolverton Hill and Laura Carlin

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I kept seeing the title The Boy Who Became a Parrot: A Foolish Biography of Edward Lear Who Invented Nonsense by Wolverton Hill and illustrator Laura Carlin on multiple promotions, lists and emails. I was starting to think I did not want to read it as I have a thing about not reading something that is too popular. This is because I figure, a popular book will sell, be given love. The not so popular book needs someone to find it, to give it the […]

Surprisingly memorable and moving

Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks

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I saw Memorial Days (2025) by Geraldine Brooks on a number of year-end lists. I wasn’t sure I wanted to read a book about grief, but there was something about the description that made me want to give it a try. This was my first book by Brooks, but I really enjoyed her writing. I thought she was honest, vulnerable, and insightful. On May 27, 2019, Brook’s husband and partner of over thirty years, Tony Horwitz, collapsed and died on a sidewalk in DC, where he was […]

A graphic novel about a graphic interest

Murder Book: a graphic memoir of a true crime obsession by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell

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Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell is a cartoonist, comedian, and true crime fanatic. Her graphic memoir is a light-hearted tribute to true crime and an exploration of why she and so many of her peers love it. I reviewed Rachel Munroe’s Savage Appetites earlier this year, and I’d say this book is the funny, optimistic true crime fan memoir in pairing with Munroe’s more dramatic, sobering one. (Both equally essential reading for true crime fans.) Campbell’s graphic memoir is in black and white, both in sync with […]

What else can I learn about myself?

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown

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I’m a little burned out on self-help books, but I always think the next one will help me a little more. On the whole, I’ve learned some important things about myself, as well as various coping strategies. I keep reading them even though I’m tired of them because I have a little FOMO when it comes to missing that one book that will fully explain me to myself. Brené Brown was recommended to me by my therapist, and The Gifts of Imperfection (2010) seemed like something of […]

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam for layfolks

The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by James Martin

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Every now and again, there’s a picture of David Tenant that pops up on social media where he’s taking a selfie at a con, and there’s some guy just next to him with his nose in his phone. The caption is almost always some suggestion of what the other guy is missing being that close to a celebrity and not knowing it.  Here’s my version of that, kind of. I kind of remember the final time I graduated that the Commencement speaker was referred to […]

I’m not tough enough for the Canadian oil sands

Ducks by Kate Beaton

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I first became aware of Kate Beaton through her charming picture book, The Princess and the Pony, released in 2015.  My, at the time, young daughters loved the book about a tiny, warrior princess who wants a noble steed like the older warriors.  Instead on her birthday she is gifted a pony that farts too much. Shortly after the publication of her graphic novel autobiography, Ducks, in 2022, it seemed everyone on the internet was declaring what a good book it was.  However, I wasn’t really […]



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