Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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When am I going to learn just to read?

My Grandma the Chameleon by Maria Lofgren

The Together Treehouse by Michael Engler and Joëlle Tourlonias

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When am I going to learn that I will just need to read a book without second guessing my choice? Two books I did this too are My Grandma the Chameleon and The Together Treehouse. The first, My Grandma the Chameleon by Maria Lofgren had me, “Do I want to read this? Maybe… nah… well, oookay…” Now, granted, I was not OMG the best book ever when I finally did read (via an online reader provided by a publisher email, due in mid-April 2026) but […]

Getting your vroom on

Sarabeth's Garage by Melanie Florence and Nadia Alam

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Once again, I found a book that I almost did not read. I was going through online reader copy links and Sarabeth’s Garage by Melanie Florence popped up. It had a funny looking cover, realistic, but overly cartoon based. It was colorful and okay, but not “grabbing me.” Still I was looking at Sarabeth, on the cover, with a garage behind her. It wasn’t bad-looking, okay it definitely looked like this was going to be a “girl power, girls can do anything story” but was […]

I posted my images out of order, but the poems are still the same

Did You Kiss A Cat Today???: Poems for Children by Diane Stevenson, Geri Lipschultz and James Berger

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The first couple of poems of Did You Kiss A Cat Today???: Poems for Children by Diane Stevenson, Geri Lipschultz and James Berger were odd. I felt they were more adult and darker than I think would be appropriate for children. Then, more poems came and more of those were for children. But once again, darker and more adult poems came about. There was realism, nonsense, and other stuff. And I say stuff as sometimes I understood the theme of things, sometimes I did not. […]

Poems and animals, poetry galore. Read the first and you’ll want more

If Pets Wrote Poems: A Parody Collection by Susan Johnston Taylor and Sandie Sonke

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Reading poetry used to be a fun pastime for me. However, recently, I have not been able to find a poet or collection that speaks to me. Things feel overly complicated, too lofty, too trying to be “deep and meaningful” with great subjects, but fall flat in the understanding of what the heck is being talked about. Sometimes I just need Red Fish, Blue Fish, or “Crowded Tub” by Shel Silverstein. Sometimes I like rhymes like that, but other times I just want a nice, […]

Current events done fun

Space Chasers V01 by Leland Melvin, Joe Caramagna, and Alison Acton

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The graphic novel Space Chasers V01 by Leland Melvin, Joe Caramagna, and Alison Acton (illustrator) is probably one of the most unbelievable books I have recently read. Oh sure, ages strong 8 and 9 to aged 13 readers are going to LOVE it, because it is about kids and the cool thing they get to do: save the world by screwing up and going to space! Yeah I would have loved this too at that age. I mean, we are kids! I mean we’re awesome! […]

Where Lovecraft Meets Spycraft

The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross

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I’m still making my way through the Laundry Files books, in hope that I’ll be reviewing the final one before the year is out. In my review of the Atrocity Archives I did mention that while the premise was good, the book was quite episodic and disjointed. To expand on that a little: re-reading it, it seems clear that the author was exploring two distinct ideas — mixing the public sector with eldritch horrors, and mixing espionage with eldritch horrors. Some of the later books […]



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