Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Let’s Get Ready to RUUUUMMMBBBLLLE! But WITH consent

Let's Rumble!: A Rough-and-Tumble Book of Play by Rachel G. Payne

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A theme I am seeing more in young adult literature (and I hope in adult novels) is consent. Like many other things, the concept of consent has changed definitions. It used to be “you give agreement to an action by someone else and they can “do” what is agreed on.” Now, I have seen enthusiastic consent used due to the #MeToo culture. I was interested by this one word change, because while people have given consent, it was out of fear for their safety, their […]

Short book, a lot in it, trigger potential. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

Lost Boy by Jay Martin

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Do not judge a book by its cover has usually been a good rule to follow for me. A lot of the time, a cover does not cover enough of the story for you to really understand the “down and dirty” or the “nitty gritty meaning of things” and reading past the cover of your book (and maybe especially with comics and graphic novels), is smart. However, with Lost Boy by Jay Martin (and an introduction by Shawn Mendes highly recommending Martin’s work) you could […]

It’s a Hard Knock Life

Living by Henry Green

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Written in 1929 by a young innovative author, Living is the account of life in a British factory town of that time.  We follow both the workers of the factory and the owner’s lives.  The factory is an iron foundry, just starting to shift from a hand-crafted tradition to a more automated version.  Most of the workers featured are the older generation, having been with the firm most of their lives, and not a few are facing retirement, voluntary or not, without much of a […]

Do you think I read a lot?

Clara the Triumphant Rhinoceros: A True Story by Jane Kurtz

Woody's Words : Woodrow Wilson Rawls and Where the Red Fern Grows by Lisa Rogers

Woods & Words: The Story of Poet Mary Oliver. by Sara Holly Ackerman

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Biographies are a fun genre.  You can find out fun facts about favorite authors, poets or even rhinoceroses. Yes, rhinoceroses can have a biography, too. After all, it is hard for them to hold a pencil in their hoof for them to write an autobiography. Therefore, I will start off with Clara the Triumphant Rhinoceros: A True Story (in case you doubt me that this is a biography of a rhino, there is “true story” in the title). Jane Kurtz created a story that gives […]

Get A LOT of boxes of tissues

Yumi and Monster by Kam Redlawsk

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Get your boxes of tissues and then you can read Yumi and Monster by Kam Redlawsk. Due in September 2025 I read this via an online reader copy. And while I am curious how the finished copy will look, I am not sure I can read this bittersweet picture book. Yumi is a little girl who loves to play, but both her parents and the doctors say that will change. One day she is given a cane to help her walk (only we don’t hear […]

From Innocent to not so

A Smart and Courageous Child by Miki Yamamoto

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The book was read. The book was being digested for thoughts. And it was almost not written about. That book was A Smart and Courageous Child by Miki Yamamoto. It is an odd, unusual, emotional, relatable, out there story. Everyone gets out of it what they put in, where they are in life, their likes and dislikes and hates and loves. It is an experience to read but what that experience that is, is up to you. A couple learns they are going to have […]



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