Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Practice dating quickly evolves into the real thing

His Grumpy Childhood Friend by Jackie Lau

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I was given an ARC of this by the author. That has in no way influenced my review. Charlotte Tam doesn’t really leave the house unless it’s to meet her friends at the local cider bar and even then, she sort of resents having to change out of her pajama pants. She mainlines coffee and is clearly the grouchiest and most pessimistic of the friend group, but is starting to miss a more personal connection, having sworn off dating after her former boyfriend proposed to […]

Allie’s not dead! She’s back and she gave us this wonderful book and she’s ok (sort of)

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

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Back in 2013, Allie Brosh published Hyperbole and a Half named after the blog she kept (and has finally updated with a new post!). I pre-ordered the last book and bought it as a Christmas present for pretty much every single person my husband and I knew that year (now our own copy seems to have mysteriously gone missing – which distresses me). Allie’s blog (we are clearly on first-name basis, and would be great friends if we ever met) and her book meant a lot to me, […]

Not a damn turtle in sight

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

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CBR12 BINGO: Orange I keep trying to like young adult fiction, to the point where it might be unfair of me to review the genre, since it’s clearly not my thing. There are exceptions, of course (my recent discovery of Eleanor & Park stands out), but generally all I can expect from YA is a solid character to whom teenagers can relate. Turtles All the Way Down scores in its representation of a teenage girl with severe anxiety and OCD, but the rest of it just […]

“There’s a particular feeling in your body when something goes right after a long time of things going wrong. It feels warm and sweet and loose.”

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

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Lily King is a magician. She takes an unassuming title like Writers and Lovers and crafts something beautiful, messy, and utterly captivating. Her last novel, 2014’s Euphoria, was my favorite read of the last decade- I have to admit that I was initially disappointed when Writers and Lovers was announced after the evocative fever of Euphoria.  A 30-something woman navigates creative struggle, debt, grief, and relationships? All I have to do is shout out of my front door and a line of people that fit the description […]

Do You Have the Need? The Need to Read?

The Need by Helen Phillips

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Helen Phillips knows how to grab your attention. My pulse was already quickening on the very first page. I had to read as much of it as quickly as I could; the chapters are snappy and taught. I had to stop myself from skimming to the bottom of every page. I was desperate for relief; chapters whip back and forth between the present and several hours ago and I just had to know what nasty break was waiting for me in the present. My distress […]

Try not to be too crabby that this does not come out until August

Crabapple Trouble by Kaeti VanDorn

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Due to the cover of Crabapple Trouble I was worried this might be some really bad acid trip. That fear continued when, I noticed heads did not always meet body in the illustrations and later, heads literally roll away after “popping off” of their bodies. I am assuming kids will be okay with Kaeti VanDorn’s realistic-abstract-unique characters which are sentient fruits and vegetables. But I can see some adults being unnerved by them. After all, the characters are Farmers which technically farm themselves (the lemon […]



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