Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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War and a family

Shell Song: Based on a True Family Story by Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson

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Shell Song: Based on a True Family Story by Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson and also illustrated by Fujimoto-Johnson is currently available, but I read via an online reader copy. The start of the story is set right before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Afterwards, the narrator’s grandfather is sent to an internment camp with other men. In age appropriate language (at least five and up) the experiences of the grandfather and family back home unfold. As set in Hawaii, seashells will play a role in keeping the […]

A Stolen Life

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Lee Dugard

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This book absolutely broke my heart. And I mean truly broke; I cried in public twice. Once in Pret and again on my train. Jaycee’s story impacted me massively. A Stolen Life is Jaycee Lee Dugard’s memoir of her eighteen years in captivity. She was kidnapped in broad daylight at age eleven, and was kept in her captor’s backyard until she was 29 with two teenage daughters of her own. The book is a difficult read, to say the least. Dugard’s writing is heartbreakingly honest and […]

Her Maturity is Impressive

The House of My Mother by Shari Franke

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Best for: Those interested in hearing the first-hand accounts of children who grew up in the realm of ‘Mommy Blogging.’ Those interested in how someone can recover from public and private emotional abuse. In a nutshell: Shari Franke grew up as the eldest daughter in the ‘Eight Passengers’ YouTube channel run by her mother, Ruby Franke. Ruby is now in prison, and Shari is telling her own story. Worth quoting: “In this family, the only safe emotion was no emotion at all.” Why I chose […]

A Memoir about More than Just Cats

Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats by Courtney Gustafson

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This was a great memoir. Author Courtey Gustafson and her partner Tim move into Poets Square, a house they’re renting in Tucson, Arizona, and soon realize that there are 30 feral cats on the property. This starts Gustafson on a journey that becomes so much bigger than just taking care of the cats on the property. That’s how it starts, though, with Gustafson doing her best to feed that cats on a limited budget and worrying about their wellbeing because there are significant limits to […]

World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

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I really did love this combination of interesting facts about plants, trees, and animals linked to the author’s memories. Nezhukumatathil begins the book describing a catalpa tree, a tree that she links to her memories of living in Kansas while her mother worked at a hospital. Most of the animals and plant/trees she recalls are often linked to her constant moving as a child and then from her moves as an adult with her husband and two sons. Some of the memories linked are sad, […]

Mr. Saturday Night

Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison

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I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Saturday Night Live is 50 years old this season. (They’ve tried to keep it quiet.) That makes the time especially fortuitous for this doorstep of a book about it’s founding impresario, the inscrutable Lorne Michaels. Everyone knows who Lorne Michaels is, but even those who know him best say they don’t really know what makes him tick. Susan Morrison makes a decent stab at capturing his essence, starting with his upbringing in Toronto and the untimely death of […]



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