Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Persuasion – The Novelization of the movie Persuasion based on the novel by Jane Austen

Persuasion by Jane Austen

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My favorite Jane Austen and my first one too. I also think that I might be teaching this book to AP students this year. It’s not as funny as some of the others, but it’s also not as long, but Anne Elliot is such a whole, wonderful character who goes through a trying, if fruitful, emotional journey in this novel that is so well-rendered that it’s impossible to dislike. In the first few chapters of the book, we first meet Anne’s father, who is in […]

The Trick is to Keep Breathing

The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway

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I’d never heard of this novel or this novelist, but this book is very good. Our narrator is a 27 year old Scottish woman who works as a school teacher. I say works as a school teacher because she seems pretty sure she is not long for that job and is showing all the signs of burnout. She is spiraling when the novel opens but it’s not clear why initially. That later becomes clear but what we do know is that she is basically counting […]

‘From the first moment he’d seen her picture in the file they’d been given, he’d been curious about this woman.’

Securing Piper by Susan Stoker

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After the orphanage that Piper was visiting is attacked by rebel forces, she barely escapes with her life – and three orphans. Determined to adopt the girls, she marries one of her rescuers, Ace. But it’s not all smooth sailing from there… I remember sitting up and taking notice when I first read the synopsis of this book, because it sounded exactly up my alley. A marriage-of-convenience! Adopted children! Peril in foreign climes! And as usual Stoker delivered in spades. The author unabashedly pulls on […]

“Over her golden yard and the glittering hills beyond, into the darkness of the trees…”

Golden Age by Jane Smiley

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***Spoilers throughout*** Well, I finished this trilogy and this was a better book than the second one. I think because Smiley starts killing people off in this one, the cast feels less unwieldy and more focused. This book is more of a victory lap in terms of drawing everyone’s narratives to a close. I again had the issue that such dramatic things happen to these people that it feels unrealistic and kept taking me out of the narrative. Any time I spend most of the […]

Hijinks and Goop people

Weird Kid by Greg Van Eekhout

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The main character in Weird Kid is an alien, therefore expect a comedy of errors to happen. There is an interesting story arch that shows that that things are a not to subtle representation of puberty and the changing we go through in middle school. It is very unbelievable (though there are two interesting pieces of realism that was surprising). It is also funny. An adult can forgive the bumps that occur as kids 10 and up will get a kick out of everything happening. […]

Modern nostalgia

Bunnicula: The Graphic Novel by James Howe

Wait Till Helen Comes Graphic Novel by Mary Downing Hahn

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My 1980’s childhood called and wants its books back. Or at least, it wants to share with you two treasured favorites of mine now in a graphic novel format. Bunnicula and Wait Till Helen Comes are two books I still recommend today. They are “safe” for a younger reader, but still have the edge of a modern reader. Bunnicula: The Graphic Novel by James Howe, Andrew Donkin, and illustrations by Stephen Gilpin is what you loved as a kid now in a graphic novel format. […]



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