Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Gini Koch encouraged me to join the team and ‘touch an alien’, so I did!

Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch

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CBR Bingo: North America – Touched by an Alien is set in the American Southwest, particularly Arizona and New Mexico. A few years ago I picked up Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by G.J. Koch and it was a blast.  Funny, fast paced, sci-fi adventure.  Afterwards, I looked for more books by the author and discovered she also wrote under Gini Koch and was impressed by the volume of books on the shelf at the bookstore.  As I didn’t know where to start, I got overwhelmed and went […]

Junior High but with magic and glitter

Kira and the (Maybe) Space Princess: (A Graphic Novel) (Magic Girls) by Megan Brennan

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Kira and the (Maybe) Space Princess: (A Graphic Novel) (Magic Girls) by Megan Brennan is a three rounded from a 2.5 rating. This is because on one level this graphic novel is a cute, manga inspired, girl power story. It is a typical “in middle school and it stinks (only I didn’t say stinks)” story. We have the outsider looking in, but wants to be on the inside. However, on the other hand these are not the nicest people in the universe. And I say […]

“The further you get from home, the weirder things get.”

The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey

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Colin Dickey is a writer on the fringe. His books are about those who fear secret societies (Under the Eye of Power), an American history of ghosts (Ghostland), and monsters/aliens (The Unidentified). In The Unidentified, Dickey meets with and explores what it is that draws people to fringe beliefs. One of his theories is that these fringe beliefs, be they in cryptids or aliens, provide us belonging, comfort, and enchantment in a disenchanted world: “Much of what attracts people to these fringe beliefs is a […]

A genius scientist and her evil nemesis some aliens, a talking goat and a toilet weasel

Billie Blaster and the Robot Army from Outer Space  by Laini Taylor

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cbr15bingo On the air:  Spaceship in space because a signal from an old robot friend is sent back to Earth that starts Billie’s adventures  Billie Blaster and the Robot Army from Outer Space  is a good solid 3.5 rating. It was not “OMG Best book ever!” but I enjoyed it. The humor is typical kid, there is a message (though maybe slightly glossed over), and there is a fun premise (though I really really wish there was a particular room on the spaceship….) Overall, ages […]

They want to believe

Out There (a graphic novel) by Seaerra Miller

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Do you believe in UFOs? Little Green Men? (Why are they always green? Little? And men?) Do you believe that we are not alone? Well Julia and her dad believe. And ever since he was abducted by aliens, he has been trying to find the truth. After all, they told him they had a message for him, but not yet. He would have t find the place. But of course, Julia’s friends, mother, and the boy she meets on the road trip to Roswell, NM […]

Math problems on Mars.

Singer Distance by Ethan Chatagnier

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I said in a status update while reading Singer Distance that it was giving me Contact vibes, and that’s true. The homespun science and grungy academic feel of the book, along with a group of characters working towards contacting aliens does give me the same feelings I get watching that movie (I have the book and I really need to finally read it!), but Singer Distance also has its own unique feel. This is an alternate history where back in the late 1800s, scientists spotted a message on Mars and began […]



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