Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I haven’t finished but still had thoughts

Mutant Cats, Volume 1 by Matthew Medney, Morgan Rosenblum, and Alex Arizmendi

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I hadn’t even finished the first five pages of Mutant Cats, Volume 1 and I was wondering if I should finish it. Or even if I could. There were some nasty images on those first few pages and I was just finishing up a tuna sandwich, so things in the ol’ tum were becoming not happy (totally ruined my lunch,  too). Yet, I said, give it a chapter.  Well, I finished that chapter and decided I’ll do my best to finish it as it had […]

From India to Israel

The Blue Butterfly of Cochin by Ariana Mizrahi & Siona Benjamin (Illustrator)

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I like finding out things that might not be familiar to me, or to the majority of people if it is presented in a fun way, as I do not care for “just the facts” and “dry textbooks.”  I like things like The Blue Butterfly of Cochin by Ariana Mizrahi and illustrated by Siona Benjamin. (Currently available, I read this via an online reader copy). I like taking a fictional story and basing it in the facts to make it relatable to the reader.  This […]

Leif’s green thumb and big heart

Leif's Gift by Michael Wang

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Do you like plants? I like plants. Now, plants on the other hand, they probably don’t like me. I had problems keeping a cactus alive. Not to mention a few of my faux plants have seen better days. But I will read books about plants and people who like plants instead. Like in Leif’s Gift by Michael Wang and illustrated by Lenny Wen. Read via an online reader, this book due in June 2025 is one you will want to preorder now as it will become […]

Careful what you wish for

The Knitting Witch: A Spellbinding Tale of Magic and Mischief by Norma Kassirer

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Ivy Lou is a wealthy child who is given everything by her overindulgent parents, in The Knitting Witch: A Spellbinding Tale of Magic and Mischief. However, if they say “no” or even hesitate, Ivy Lou has three tantrums she can use to get her way. One day a witch (hence the title) shows up, promising the one thing Ivy Lou’s parents cannot buy (friends for Ivy Lou). But as the woman is a witch, things do not go as hoped and Ivy Lou gets a […]

I’ve read 18 books this year. 7 of them were read in the last week.

Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang

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I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts at work, and reading Harry Potter with my son at home. That hasn’t left a lot of space in my life for reading for me. I’ve kind of made up for that over the last week, but I’m still quite a bit behind where I should be this year. I think I haven’t generally read a lot of contemporary fiction because it seems to often consist of bad things happening to broken people. Even looking at the […]

Difficult Women

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox: A Novel by Maggie O’Farrell

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Maggie O’Farrell is one of my favorite contemporary writers. She has a great talent for historical fiction (read Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait), and she excels at telling stories of women who find themselves in untenable positions. In The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Esme is a woman who, like Agnes in Hamnet and Lucrezia in The Marriage Portrait, is unusual in ways that make her seem dangerous to those around her. She does not conform to conventional traditional female roles and, as we know […]



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