Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Teacher’s Pets

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

by Leave a Comment

At an Edinburgh all-girls school in the 1930s, Miss Jean Brodie teaches her young students in her own way. Flaunting the restrictive attitudes of her headmistress and defying social conventions for women of the time, Miss Jean Brodie is a force to be reckoned with. But is she a force for good? Muriel Spark’s novel has been near the top of my TBR list for a long while, but I admit I had never looked into what it was about too closely. I heard that […]

There’s a lot to unpack and my suitcase isn’t big enough

My Father, the Panda Killer by Jamie Jo Hoang

by Leave a Comment

After finishing My Father, the Panda Killer by Jamie Jo Hoang, I texted a friend to tell her I had finally finished the difficult book I was reading. It was difficult as the pacing felt slow to me and the subject is far from easy. The main character is the first generation to be born in the states after her parents fled war-torn Vietnam during/after the war. We, like the narrator Jane, learn about things in snippets with her having to fill in the blanks. […]

Four Kids and a Comic Club

The Cartoonists Club: A Graphic Novel by Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud

by Leave a Comment

If you are looking for a good graphic novelist, Raina Telgemeier is one to check out. However, she usually writes for the 10 and up crowd, but with The Cartoonists Club: A Graphic Novel (along with Scott McCloud) she has hit the slightly younger aged 8 to 12 range a little more solidly. The format is a mixture of a story (four friends, who started out mostly not knowing each other, form a comic book club so they can make comics) and factual information about […]

The classic and this reviewers review

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

by Leave a Comment

I have finally read The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. While texting a friend, I said to her I think one of the issues I have with this book is that it has been so popular and pushed so hard as one of the greatest books ever written, that I think my skepticism came to light early on. I mean, how can anything be that good? If you have to force people to think something is good by pushing it so much, it has […]

A friend recommended

One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe by Dara Horn

by Leave a Comment

A friend and I have talked about books for as long as we’ve known each other. She is a daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, author (both fiction and nonfiction, for both adults and teens), a reader and much much more. But one thing she was not was a graphic novel reader. Well, as you might know, I am a reader of the genre. So I said to her, give it a shot and here are recommendations, even sending her a few books. Well, one day she […]

The grandfather, the boy, the guitar and the song

The One About the Blackbird by Melanie Florence

by Leave a Comment

Bring the tissues when you read The One About the Blackbird by Melanie Florence and illustrator Matt James (read via an online reader copy, due later October 2025). This is a bittersweet story of the love of a grandson and grandfather and how the tables turn as time goes by, but music always pulls them together. The story is about how a young boy is always surrounded by music. One night he tells his grandfather he, too, wants to make music like his favorite song […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo