Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Red Kites and Black Birds

The Pebble: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Marius Marcinkevičius

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The Pebble: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Marius Marcinkevičius, illustrated by Inga Dagilė and translated by Jura Avizienis is a clever telling of the Holocaust story via one child’s experiences. We follow a child from inside to the ghetto, to the day they leave and do not return. The mystical element might be assumed “real” and therefore, having a younger child missing the metaphor, but older readers/children and adults will appreciate it. The artwork is sparse, but creates a tone that allows the realism […]

Become booked

Gray by Laura Dockrill

Gwendolyn and the Light: A Picture Book by Susan Yoon

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Picture books are fun, but are hard books to write reviews about. There are usually only a few hundred words (at best) and the stories short enough that to give a description of things means you told the whole book. Recently I found two books that I enjoyed, but I am not saying, “OMG BEST BOOKS EVER” about. They are cozy, their audiences are people who like a softer toned, but strong read. Please read on to learn more about them…  The picture book Gray […]

The Star Wars Question and Answer Book About Computers

The Star Wars Question and Answer Book About Computers by Fred D'Ignazio

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Similar to my review of Digital Life by Michael Crichton, I was attracted to this book because it’s old, and I love seeing old predictions of how computers would exist in our life that predate their modern ubiquity. The problem however is that this book doesn’t get very much wrong! That’s partially because it doesn’t say very much, it’s a 50 page long large-print book for children. I can imagine if you were between the ages of 5 and 10 in the mid-80s, this book could […]

A good time, not a long time

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

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I’m always interested in Sapphic romance that features woman in middle age, so I was immediately drawn to Mistakes Were Made. While the overall story was engaging and fun, I had trouble connecting with the characters and buying into the central love story. But it was a fun read with some great love scenes that I would recommend for a quick vacation read. College senior Cassie is in an off-campus bar avoiding family weekend. Erin is in the same bar avoiding her ex-husband while he […]

“Only living here wasn’t exactly turning out to be normal.”

Night of the Living Queers by Shelly Page and Alex Brown

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In honor of Pride month (well, actually, Overdrive selected it for me because it was available, and, fortuitously, it fits the theme!), I picked up Night of the Living Queers, edited by Shelly Page and Alex Brown. This YA short story collection, which is unfortunately named, in my opinion, was terrific. As with any short story collection, there were a few stories that didn’t work so well for me, but as a collection, writing quality was uniformly high, the variety was delicious in terms of […]

A tour of the solar system in prose, poetry, and prosody (from Kirkus Reviews (03/01/2024))

A Planet Is a Poem by Amanda West Lewis

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I will start with, unfortunately I did not finish A Planet Is a Poem by Amanda West Lewis and illustrated by Oliver Averill. Not because it is a bad book, but because it is a fantastic book. It is just a difficult read via an online copy for me. Also, the subjects (planets and poetry) are not something everyone would be into. Plus it is really not in a format that one expects when talking about space, planets or poetry. It is not pure science […]



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