Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Dark magic

Muted: Volume 1 by Miranda Mundt

by Leave a Comment

I almost skipped reading Muted: Volume 1 by Miranda Mundt. It looks too “girly” and maybe even a bit too graphic in the “thriller/horror” elements. And before I go much farther into the review: TRIGGERS include, but are not limited to: bullying, child death, parent death, fire, death, blood, a form of self-harm, form of racism towards other classes of witches, fantasy elements and mental abuse. And even though the cover made me iffy about reading things, I did finally “pick up” the online reader.  […]

Hiking through boyhood “shoulds”

When You’re a Boy by Blake Nuto

by Leave a Comment

We know the stereotypes of what “boys and girls should be.” And there are several books out there that talk about how girls should break that mold and be bold, brave, aggressive, smart, funny, and basically be “like a boy” and not the shy, demure “should be” of a girl. This time Blake Nuto takes that concept, but for boys. A boy should be like the cruel wild, but the narrator is also saying they have learned about kindness. There are several parts to this […]

Charles Addams, Shel Silverstein, AA Milne and Edward Gorey had a baby this would be its cousin.

The Boy Who Lived in a Shell: Snippets for Wandering Minds by John Himmelman

by Leave a Comment

If Charles Addams, Shel Silverstein, AA Milne and Edward Gorey had a baby this would be its cousin. The Boy Who Lived in a Shell: Snippets for Wandering Minds by John Himmelman is not necessarily spooky or kooky like Addams or Gorey; or rhyming like Silverstein and does not have the sweetness or innocence of Milne, but a mixture that is all its own. Due mid-March 2025, I read via an online reader’s copy. The stories the boy talks about, or actually writes, are on […]

Well, this one made me cry.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

by 1 Comment

One of my new year’s resolutions was to be more intentional about reading chapter books to my kids (ages 7 and 9) on a regular basis – with the goal being a book a month, say, or a big book that we have started but never finished (looking at you, The Hobbit) I hope to incorporate my thoughts on how read-aloud-able these books are in my CBR reviews – maybe it will help fellow parents on similar reading journeys! Anyway, we started the year off […]

Return of the King

Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

by Leave a Comment

This is another one where I won’t have much to say because better things have already been said ad nauseam. tl;dr, Return of the King is a masterpiece. One thing I missed as a kid is the slow build of Frodo’s burden as they get closer and closer to Mt. Doom. You get this sense of the gravity of the task and how it’s almost draining Frodo’s life throughout the journey. It shows the depth of the Ring’s power and the threat it carries as […]

Alas, a Plumber’s Life Was Not to Be

Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp

by Leave a Comment

This is a used book that I picked up at some library sale eons ago, because I recognized the title.  It had been made into a 1940s “woman’s” flick that starred Jennifer Jones, and that was about all I remembered.  I was curious as to how closely the movie might have followed the book, but decided to read it first.  Judging that our introduction to Cluny is that she is an orphan in her late teens, taken in by a rather sour uncle who is […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo