Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

This wasn’t for me, but I am curious about the author

Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo

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Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo was a slow read for this reader. Also, it was nothing I had not read in other young adult novels, but for the modern reader starting out it is good. The prose poetry element reads as a novel and moves at its familiar novel pacing. I would have liked to have seen more of the narrator’s cultural background, but what is there is decent. You see, Bright Red Fruit is new if you are new to young adult literature, […]

The boy, the wardrobe, the legacy

The Boy Behind the Wardrobe: How C.S. Lewis Grew Up to Create Narnia by Suzanne Poulter Harris and Mira Miroslavova

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The Boy Behind the Wardrobe: How C.S. Lewis Grew Up to Create Narnia by Suzanne Poulter Harris and illustrated by Mira Miroslavova (due mid-late October 2026; read via an online reader). Most people have read the C.S. Lewis series of Narnia. I am not most people. Granted, a teacher did read one or two to us in about third or fourth grade, but I really do not remember them. I do vaguely remember the movies of a few years back (pre X-Men James McAvoy), but […]

“She’d played so many parts she hardly knew which one was her. She was an onion made of only skins with nothing at the centre.”

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

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Nowhere Book Bingo 26: Book rec from a friend (Ashley/Narfna loved this) Defeat the Goblin TBR: The Rogue Book – a book with politics/intrigue/sneakery involved (this book has all three and lots of it) CBR18 Bingo: Left (All of my fiction books are alphabetised by author, so Abercrombie comes to the very top left of the bookshelf it’s placed on) A cowardly monk. A mercenary. A vampire. A werewolf (who used to be a viking warrior). An elf. A necromancer. A knight who cannot die. […]

A tangled fishing line catches friendship

Ege and Avra by Evgenia Mantikas and Elifgul Buyukoral

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The Autumn releases come at the busy time of the year as it is pre-holidays. And some years what you will find is good and other years not as much. But Fall of 2026 will be filled with new publications. And some really good ones too, like Ege and Avra.  Publisher description says it is a story about connecting Türkiye and Greece on the Aegean Sea. And that is how it ends, but the start is where the goodness happens. We follow two girls, Ege […]

I’d like to be friends with the characters of these books

Johnny Tunes and the Gandy Dancers by Pamela M Tuck, Joel S Tuck, and Jerry Jordan

The Northbound Train: A Story of the Great Migration by Leslie Johnson Piotrowski and Tonya Engel

Solar Mamas: The Story of Sanjit "Bunker" Roy and the Grandmothers Who Became Solar Engineers by Jyothi Nookula and Nabi H. Ali

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Three picture books, all read via online reader copies, that everyone should have in their collections (be you teacher, parent, child, student, or other) are the below. Johnny Tunes and the Gandy Dancers by Pamela M Tuck, Joel S Tuck, Jerry Jordan (Illustrator) (due September 2026).   The Northbound Train: A Story of the Great Migration (A Picture Book) by Leslie Johnson Piotrowski, Tonya Engel (Illustrated by) (due January 2027).  Solar Mamas: The Story of Sanjit “Bunker” Roy and the Grandmothers Who Became Solar Engineers by […]

A family story

The Fire Walker by Ainkaran Sivaaji and N. Dejeshwini

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The Fire Walker by Ainkaran Sivaaji and illustrated by N. Dejeshwini is due in mid-September 2026. I think I will read it at least once more before it comes out and at least once when I find a finished copy (I read via an online reader copy). There is a lot going on with the theme and illustrations. The idea is simple: a child worries about his father, wonders how people will react when they see the father is not well, and can the father […]



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