Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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My first encounter with the source material

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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Cbr17bingo Green I never read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a kid. Like many, my acquaintance with the story was from the 1939 film, which I always enjoyed watching even though the flying monkeys and Wicked Witch scared me. Later, in high school or college, I remember hearing that the original story was an allegory about turn-of-the-century American populism and the argument over whether or not the gold standard should be abandoned. You can read a bit about that theory here. Whether or not […]

An important book that you’ve probably never heard of

How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino

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Cbr16bingo Vintage  This book, published in Japan in 1937, is a classic of Japanese literature and served as the inspiration for the Hayao Miyazaki film “The Boy and The Heron”. This translation by Bruno Navasky is the first time How Do You Live? has been translated into English, and it features an introduction by Neil Gaiman. Genzaburo Yoshino was born in 1899 and earned a degree in philosophy from Tokyo Imperial University. The Japan of his youth was becoming increasingly militaristic and even had “thought […]

Getting back to my Animorphs re-read, sort of.

The Suspicion (Animorphs, #24) by K.A. Applegate

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The Helmacrons are the worst villains. I also like them and think they are effective and ridiculous? It’s complicated. The Helmacrons are an extremely violent and egomaniacal alien species that has decided to invade Earth and subject all citizens to their will, destroying the rest. They are also 1/16th of an inch tall. Cassie finds their spaceship and thinks it’s a toy, so she donates it to Goodwill. The Helmacrons are very angered by this, and call for help. The result is two tiny spaceships […]

I Didn’t Mean to Read This Whole Book

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As many people are aware, 2017 was on the whole, a bit nuts. My personal and professional life decided to follow suit, and while I may appreciate the travel miles and hotel points that racked up, I’m looking forward to a more stable (personally) 2018. I started at new job with the new along with the new year, and while I’m searching for housing in a new area, I’ve been staying with family during the work week. Wednesday night, I sat down to read aloud […]

Moar Sherman Alexie [even if it’s so short]!!!!!

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It’s no secret around these parts that I’m a huge Sherman Alexie fan. And while most of his works would be considered adult, I absolutely freaking loved his young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I’ve been really hoping that he would write more works for young readers. And when I found out about Thunder Boy, Jr., I realized that my wish was coming true. I explain in my full review why I am still a bit disgruntled with Sherman Alexie–even […]

A charming and sweet love letter to the power of story

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Back in March, we had an instructor emergency, which led me to take on an extra class mid-semester (and is part of the reason I am SO FAR BEHIND on my Cannonball reviewing). It’s always hard to take on another person’s course, especially when your own classload is fairly full, and doubly especially when their syllabus is frighteningly sparse. We muddled through somehow, and thankfully, the last unit of the course synced up with my other two classes. As a result, I got to hear […]



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