Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Aliens with doughnuts

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

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CBR square- Queer Lives. What a lovely, absorbing, moving book. I really loved Light From Uncommon Stars, the Hugo nominated book from Ryka Aoki. It’s about a transgender girl named Katrina who runs away from her abusive home and runs towards Shizuka Satomi, a woman who has made a bargain with a demon to bring seven souls to Hell in order for people to know her music again. She plays the violin and so does Katrina. Once she hears Katrina play she knows she is […]

The Mozart Effect Effect!

Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman

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Not a typo! You are probably familiar with the Mozart Effect, but have you heard about the Mozart Effect Effect?! We’ve all heard the story: listening to Mozart makes you smarter! You will test better! Your babies will be brilliant! You will smash the SATS! Listening to Mozart every day will give you a leg up above all of the others! My mother was definitely a proponent of this adventure; “if you can play classical music, then how come you can’t do well in math! Mozart […]

Fighting Demons with the Power of Music

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The Magia the Ninth series has a thoroughly ridiculous premise, which is why it’s so much fun. It’s also only 2 volumes which makes the end pretty open-ended. I found myself wishing for maybe one or two more volumes to fill in a few of the many gaps. Basically a high school student whose parents were killed by a demon runs into the head demon hunter of the Church of the Masterpiece, Ludwig von Beethoven (cranky, ambitious, powerful, but maybe nice too). Beethoven, along with […]



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