Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Two thinly connected perspectives become devastatingly intertwined

A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo

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    If you’ve read Ayobami Adebayo’s Stay With Me, you will probably not be surprised that her most recent novel was longlisted for the Booker prize. While both novels are wonderful, I think the scale of storytelling in A Spell of Good Things grows in such powerful ways. As with her previous novels, this story offers a glimpse into modern life in Nigeria, this time taking us into the lives of Wuraola, the daughter of a doctor who is also a doctor herself and […]

A little girl and her Babybell cheese

Looking Up by Stephan Pastis

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Looking Up is typical of Stephan Pastis and his style. Which means there is quirky, off-beat (and sometimes off color) humor. Sometimes you like the characters, sometimes not. They are not Pearls Before Swine as those characters can be adult and this book is for at least ages 10 and up (though younger could do as well, or be read to). However, that is until the end when we find a very powerful, and telling, twist. Of course, Pastis can be serious, too. After all, they […]

When Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky got together and made Bob Odenkirk,

Zilot & Other Important Rhymes by Bob Odenkirk

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If Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky got together and made Bob Odenkirk, the result would be the poetry book, Zilot & Other Important Rhymes. And I got all that from the first three poems.I was thinking when I thought that, what kind of other madness can be next? Trust me, I still was not prepared even knowing what kind of madness those classic writers could make (because I was unfamiliar with Mr. Odenkirk’s particular humor). There are more rhymes, there were really gross shoelaces, there were […]

Doom Thorax has the Power (of reading)

Doom's Day Camp by Joshua Hauke

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I honestly was surprised at how much I liked the graphic novel, Doom’s Day Camp by Joshua Hauke. At first, I felt it was just going to be “dumb humor” or “not for everyone offbeat and off color humor” but most of it turned out to be pretty classy. (Okay! Okay! There is one earth shattering f**t, but it did save the day! And frankly, f**ts are funny if they happen to someone else.) The ideas, of course, have been done before (a nerd/uncool kid […]

The fictional town of Crabgrass Drive has a story it wants to tell

Crabgrass: Comic Adventures (Volume 1). by Tauhid Bondia

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The trials and tribulations of being a kid “back in the day” (before cell phones and computers) is the premise of Crabgrass: Comic Adventures (Volume 1). Sometimes things are over-the-top, but through it all, there are a few messages about just being yourself, being loyal to friends, realizing that  things are going to be okay, things are better than you think, and embarrassment comes with the job. And all the while the two main characters must watch out for crazy siblings and crazier parents. Tauhid Bondia knows […]

When you think you’ve joined the good guys but you’ve really just joined a cult

Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

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CBR15Bingo: Relation “ship” (cargo ships and relationships) Bingo: (left to right: Dwelling to On the Air) Will Kempen is on the run and on a mission: find the man who had his mother murdered and take him down. Unfortunately, his mission leads him directly into the hands of those who want him dead. After being rescued off of a sinking ship by Violet, the two of them are taken back to the hall of the Stewards (protectors of the light and fighters against the Dark […]



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