Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The night parade is about to begin . . .

Tokyo Night Parade by J. P. Takahashi

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I am not really sure how I feel about the picture book, Tokyo Night Parade. After read I noticed there were several layers and the art needed its own reading. Taken on the surface, it is a sweet story about a young girl who wants to spend time with old friends from Japan, ones she has not seen since moving to New York. These friends are a bit different though, as they are the demons of Japanese folklore. And our young hero cannot see them […]

A boy and his bird

Kozo the Sparrow by Allen Say

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Kozo the Sparrow by Allen Say is what you expect from a Say picture book. Due in mid-October 2023 I read via an online reader copy. The story is about his childhood, there are the children of post-war, and there his classical upbringing with the more modern touches of the time. There is nothing new, but as always, Say does not disappoint. The story of nursing a young bird to health, the responsibility and the fondness he has for this bird is wonderfully presented. You […]

Loss and Love

Always Sisters: A Story of Loss and Love by Saira Mir

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When you see a book with the title Always Sisters: A Story of Loss and Love a lot can go through your mind, as I know it did for me. Which was mostly what we were to deal with in the case of death. Disease? Accident? An older sibling taking their own life? Not to mention, is this going to be a straight forward or a “sappy” read. For me that made the process of reading this book perhaps more interesting than the book itself. […]

A thriller about grief that only made me cry a little bit

The Guide by Peter Heller

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Peter Heller writes such introspective thrillers. I am not a fisher, and I know very little about the technical terminology related to outdoors activities like hunting, or fishing, or riding horses. At times, it was almost like reading words from another language, and I used context clues to determine that word must refer to a shoe, or that must be another word for a fishing rod. Despite the language barrier, I found myself captivated by this meditation on grief, guilt, mixed with an anti-capitalist thriller […]

Jamie take two

Just Jamie  by Terri Libenson

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I first read the graphic novel, Just Jamie by Terri Libenson in 2019. I only went back for a second round as I could not remember anything about it. In fact, it was to the point that I even questioned if I had read it. Well, I did have one image in my head, but it did not help much in remembering the story. However, my rating of five back then, is now 3.5 to 4 rating. This book was good, and I liked how the characters […]

I appreciate the hard work that went into creating the book, though

Cruel Illusions by Margie Fuston

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I had seen the cover of Cruel Illusions as an online reader copy ages back. I saved the link but never got around to reading it, and then the link expired. No big deal, I’d get to it eventually, and recently I requested it via an interlibrary loan. Well, I almost wish I hadn’t. The cover lied. To a point. It would have (at the end) the roses and the main character dressed like that, but that romanticism was pushed all until the end (except […]



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