Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Prose, poems and stories

A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe by Mahogany L. Browne

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While there are a lot of new titles out there, I needed to catch up on some older titles. Books, I keep “meaning to read” and never get around too. I picked up A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe by Mahogany L. Browne. I thought it was a book in verse, but it is more short essays and diary entries. Or as if someone is interviewing the narrator and they are just replying to questions.  Still, it was short and figured […]

More Inspirational Than Adaptational

White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link

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Another great modern fairy tale collection, though very different than the Adelmann book. Link takes seven folktales and creates original, contemporary fairy tales inspired by them. “The White Cat’s Divorce” is the opener, based on my beloved Madame d’Aulnoy’s “The White Cat” – and Link’s version is actually VERY close to the original story, except for its conclusion (which is a delicious twist). But her narration sounds very “21st century d’Aulnoy,” and the basic premise is the same. So it surprised me when over half […]

Smart cookies

Vasilisa the Wise and Other Tales of Brave Young Women by Kate Forsyth

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Vasilisa the Wise is one of a half dozen or so fairy tale collections Kate Forsyth wrote for children (though I didn’t know its audience going into it, and other than the fact that the photo-illustrations feature children in the lead parts, I might not have figured that out). They are traditionally but lovingly told, with a few adjustments for the modern era, which the author discusses. Each story has background information, on why the author or illustrator picked it for the book, how they […]

Review of The Edge of Everything Short Stories

Safe Harbor by Nicola Yoon

Julia at the Drive-in by Rainbow Rowell

Winter Breakage by David Levithan

The Price of Admission by Dustin Thao

Three of Hearts by Katie Cotugno

Back to You by Ann Liang

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Here’s my review of the newest collection of original short stories with the theme of coming to age short stories that revolve around love, school, angst, and everything in between. I honestly enjoyed the majority of the stories, and only really didn’t really gel with one. Safe Harbor by Nicola Yoon and David Yoon (5 stars)-I thought the first story in the collection was great. We follow teen Isabel who has been sent to a group therapy appointment by her parents to help her get […]

“To be so ravenous with desperation that the only way out is complete and utter annihilation. A torpedo made of your own sharpened body.”- Senaa Ahmad (or me about wanting to quit this book)

The Age of Calamities: Stories by Senaa Ahmad

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I bought this book for two reasons: the New York Times highly recommended it, and I have always had a fascination with Anne Boleyn and one of the stories was said to feature her. And now you get a story by story commentary on how very much a mistake that decision was. Let’s Play Dead: Right off the bat we have the Anne Boleyn story, and right off the bat I loathe this book. Henry VIII has Anne Boleyn’s head chopped off and the next […]

Fetty on the Switches by David Simmons

Fetty on the Switches by David Simmons

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Please note that I received this via NetGalley. This did not impact my rating or review. Well crime/horror is definitely a new genre for me. I have to say that all in all I give this collection 3 stars. Some of the stories I thought were really good and others I felt lost while reading. I did like that Simmons is entirely focused on showing crime in urban areas with most of the characters we follow are Black. I would definitely read something by Simmons […]



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