Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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You can read Orlando 1 OR Orlando 2 (part two) (cbr18bingo)

Orlando: A Graphic Novel Biography by Jules Scheele

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A while back I read two versions of 1984 by Orwell in a graphic novel format. I had done this at least once before with The Great Gatsby (two graphic novels, same title) and now have done it with Orlando by Virginia Wolff. Each time the dual readings allowed me to pick up different pieces of the puzzle and allowed for comparison that helped me see what “worked best” for my personal reading style. With the first book, I was confused as to plot points […]

You can read Orlando 1 OR Orlando 2 (part one)

Orlando: A Graphic Novel Adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Queer Classic by Susanne Kuhlendahl

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Orlando: A Graphic Novel Adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Queer Classic by Virginia Woolf and adapted by Susanne Kuhlendahl is marked as a graphic novel adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s feminist classic, which tells the story of a passionate young nobleman traveling through time in the body of a woman.  Say, whaaaat?  I had NO idea this was what the book was about!  I admit, I might have been an English major and worked in a bookstore for several years, but I had never had this book […]

Six stories, one War

Survivors of the Holocaust: True Stories of Six Extraordinary Children by Kath Shackelton, Zane Whittingham and Ryan Jones

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This is a controversial start to my review of Survivors of the Holocaust: True Stories of Six Extraordinary Children by editor Kath Shackelton: Yes, I think we need stories about the Jewish experiences of the Holocaust. Yes, we need the children’s stories. And thankfully we can have survivor stories. However, we know those stories. I would love to see more stories about the other people who were persecuted as well. I want a mix of stories as I do not want anyone’s story to be […]

Wombat in a strange land

Digger, Volume One by Ursula Vernon

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If Lord of the Rings, Redwall and Haru by Joe Latham had a book baby (though I’m assuming Haru could have been influenced by this story) Digger, Volume One by Ursula Vernon would be the result. It is funny, dense, dark, mysterious, slow in parts, yet it keeps you hooked wondering what is next. It is not for young or sensitive readers, as the images are mostly “tame,” the text and descriptions are not always so. The black and white art is both positive and […]

Please, DON’T send in the clown

Hamlet is Not OK by R.A. Spratt

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As a teen (at least 13 and up), Hamlet is Not OK by R.A. Spratt and I would have been friends. This is because I, too, would have had some of the naive ideas about violence and mental health our main character has. Now, I still am not keen on violence as the solution and I understand the difficulties of mental health, but if you change Hamlet (and SPOILER, they do) you have changed practically everything that has come after that was inspired by it, […]

At least now I know where the term “Whirling Dervish” comes from

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

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That’s the most positive thing I can come up with about this book. What a slog this was.  The plot: Ella Rubinstein is a forty year old stay at home mother to two children and a possibly perpetually unfaithful husband. She takes up a job with a publishing house to revise a novel called Sweet Blasphemy by a man named Aziz Zahara. As she reads the novel, she becomes fascinated by the story of the novel, about the friendship between renowned 13th century poet Rumi […]



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