Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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If you want the sweet of The Snowman, look somewhere else

When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs

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How do you make a book about The Bomb and War beautiful? As Raymond Briggs or actually, read their graphic novel titled When the Wind Blows. This is not The Snowman with its whimsy and sweetness. This is a book that will make you laugh, be sad, have an off chuckle (should I really be laughing at these poor people?), then you will not stop crying. This is an amazing Anti-War story that is not for the sensitive reader, but is a must read to […]

The island might be unspoiled but some of its residents really stink…

Summer Shadows by John Harris Dunning, Ricardo Cabral, Brad Simpson and Jim Campbell

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The cover of Summer Shadows by John Harris Dunning, Ricardo Cabral, Brad Simpson and Jim Campbell is a tad misleading. It makes things look like a teen thriller in the line of a slightly darker Christopher Pike, RL Stine, or Richie Tankersley Cusick and the like. In other words, something from the late 1980s or early 1990s when I was a teen and actually reading realistic paranormal.  Instead of a “teeny bopper thriller with supernatural” we get sex, drugs, and vampires. We get some downright […]

Not all men, but certainly a lot of them. Especially rich, white ones.

The Change by Kirsten Miller

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4.5 stars Buzzwords Cover Challenge 25: Pattern CBR17 Bingo: Red (A book with a red cover) Official plot summary: In the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment… After Nessa James’s husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she’s left all alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean. In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices. It doesn’t take long […]

Try to look away from the game of living and watching living

Spectators by Brian K Vaughan

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Spectators by Brian K Vaughan and illustrator Niko Henrichon is a train wreck I could not stop reading. This graphic novel (due late fall 2025) is in the vein of Revival by Tim Seeley and artist Mike Norton, and The Walking Dead but with fewer zombies and more ghosts.  When I finished my reader copy (and in fact through it) I thought it was the most screwed up book I’ve read in a while! DAMN! What an awesome read! There is so much going on […]

Enter the Multiverse but Staying Cozy, at least for now

Chilling Reflections by Drew Hayes

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Bingo 4: Favorite Drew Hayes in one of my favorite contemporary authors. He’s got the right level of geek, trope, and fun, while still managing to stay interesting. Chilling Reflections is book 3 in the Villain’s Code series, and while there have been signs in previous volumes, this one makes it pretty clear that this series is tilting into a Marvel-style multi-verse area. One thing that definitely surprised me is how directly the side story series (Villains Vignettes 1) is involved. I’ve read that, and […]

B is for Ballad

The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings

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Bingo 1: “B” square I was in New Orleans in January for a work conference; the only time I went into the French Quarter was to visit a bookstore. On the local interest shelf there was one title I vaguely recognized: The Ballad of Perilous Graves. This was for the first half a generally interesting musical and magical realism kind of mystery in which local kids notice something is wrong with the spirit of the city of Nola and must then save everyone and everything […]



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