Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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I wrote the review ages ago, but left the wording in present tense

This Is How I Say I Love You: Little Bunny’s Bedtime Story Told in English and Chinese by Dayong Gan

The Most Beautiful Painting: Discover the Mystery of Chinese Script (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition) by Yajuan Lu and Jian Li

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As a kid I remember checking out several folktale books from the school library. As an adult I learned to appreciate them in a way I never could have as a kid. One thing was how similar stories can pop up in different cultures, or how stories can be adapted for another setting. The other is you can learn about a country as well. And while I am not sure if the two books in this review will fit any of the above categories, or […]

“Writing gives you the power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much”

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

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Dark Corner Selection: March 2026 In a different version of 16th-century Spain, young Luzia Cortado works grudgingly as a scullery maid for the miserable and petty Doña Valentina. Luzia can use what she calls “small magics” to make her life easier. She can mend seams, multiply the groceries, unburn bread or reassemble broken things. She performs these little spells, learned from generations of her Jewish ancestors, by singing quietly. Luzia is a convert; she dutifully goes to Mass and hides any traces of her Jewish […]

No wonder Haiti has some many issues.

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende

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A sprawling tale of the complex and extremely bloody history of the melting pot that was early 17th century Haiti.  It’s a seething brew of the indigenous people of Haiti, slaves brought from Africa to work the sugar plantations, and the various European settlers from Spain, England, and especially France.  And although Haiti was a colony of France at the time, the French were not at all a cohesive group – there were at least three groups of French since this is the period of […]

“She was a half-wild thing of ink and grass and sea breezes, raised by books and rabbits and fairy lore, and that was all she cared to be.”

The Magician's Daughter by H. G. Parry

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Biddy lives on a small, magically isolated island off the coast of Ireland with her guardian/foster father, Rowan, and his familiar, the rabbit Hutchincroft. No one who doesn’t know that it’s there can find it. While Biddy has no magic of her own, she has grown up with it all around her. Yet magic is fading in the outside world, and far too often, Rowan has to leave Biddy to go to the mainland in bird form to find some small reserves of it. She […]

“She could not be tamed. It would be a crime to even try.”

Queen Charlotte: Inspired by the Original Series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story Created by Shondland for Netflix by Julia Quinn & Shonda Rhimes

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I absolutely loved the Queen Charlotte on Netflix; in fact, it was probably my favorite “season” of Bridgerton. So when I found out there was a novel of it, I knew I had to snatch it up. And that’s exactly what this is: a novelization of the show. Which isn’t exactly a bad thing, but if you’re looking for something different, this isn’t it. In fact, I spent the time reading it seeing scenes from the show playing out in my head. Well, it is […]

No longer under his grandmother’s table

I Wish I Didn't Have to Tell You This: A Graphic Memoir by Eugene Yelchin

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I enjoy Eugene Yelchin as an author and illustrator. I have read several titles including, The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, Breaking Stalin’s Nose, and The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet! by Carmen Agra Deedy (illustrated by Yelchin). Therefore I was excited about I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This: A Graphic Memoir written and illustrated by Yelchin. I was assuming it was going to be a memoir of his life during the early 1980s, but it […]



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