Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Adventures in ghost hunting

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

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I read Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega for our Young at Heart Cannon book club. I am so glad this book came into my life. 2022 has been plagued with a few reading slumps from the pandemic. However, this middle-grade book got me back into the groove. I read the audiobook, which I highly recommend. The supernatural mystery follows two friends, Lucely and Syd, who live in St. Augustine, Florida. Lucely is Dominican-American and can see her ghost relatives. She speaks to their spirits […]

More work to be done

The Black Cabinet: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt by Jill Watts

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

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The Black Cabinet: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt by Jill Watts was our Mocha Girls Read book club selection in June. It became a very timely selection after the horrible death of George Floyd, which shone a brighter light on Black Lives Matter activism in America. As a Black woman, I was suffering from emotional exhaustion during that time. This history book actually helped put so many current things in perspective. We have come a long way, […]

Discussion Topics Preview: Station Eleven

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The Station Eleven discussion post is still live, and you can still comment on that discussion. My lovely fellow Cannonballers, are you ready to make a return trip to Station Eleven? Let this post serve as your official reminder – we are 10 days away from book club on Friday March 20 and Saturday March 21.  Really interesting reviews of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven are already up, and I’m about midway through my current reread. I’m  getting excited for what’s ahead. If you were here […]

What if you could weaponize memories?

The Memory Thief by Lauren Mansy

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Lauren Mansy’s The Memory Thief was the Mocha Girls Read book club read for October. I appreciate how all my book clubs push me to read stories I may not have picked on my own. I love the YA fantasy genre, so I was intrigued by the premise of using memories as power. In this world, the Gifted can take memories and weaponize them by forcing bad memories on other people. There’s an evil tyrant named Madame who enjoys wielding memories for cruel means and […]

Bingo: Classics Whiplash, My Dear Watson

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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I read this for the first time a few years back*, in between books of “The Men who Hate Women”. Also, oddly enough, I finished it while we were on our way to This is the Place. (Please don’t ask me to explain This is the Place. You either know or you don’t: suffice to say that there is a tie-in to A Study in Scarlet, however loose).

Poetic feels

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

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The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo is a coming of age story written in poetic verse. Xiomara Batista attends Catholic high school and forced by her mom to attend catechism classes. Her mom has a very strict idea of what her daughter should be. Boys are definitely off limits. Thus, she pours all her teenage angst into her prized notebook. Also lots of feelings about her classmate named Aman. It’s only when she joins the poetry club does she begin to find her voice. Unfortunately, she […]



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