Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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I Wish That I Could Be Like the Cool Kids

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

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Every adult was a kid at one time, and probably always a kid in some ways. Either in play or wonder or understanding of the world and its dynamics. Yet, somehow, I always forget that kids intuit and navigate the same world we adults do, often with more moral clarity and insight if not vocabulary. S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders is a great reminder of those truths. Not just because it’s such a timeless story of coming of age, moral luck, and choice. But also because […]

“We consider it cruel,” Maia said. “And we do not think that cruelty is ever just.”

The Goblin Emperor (The Chronicles of Osreth #1) by Katherine Addison

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It was the first time in his life Maia had been surrounded by people who were like him instead of only snow-white elves with their pale eyes, and he missed several names in the effort not to faint or hyperventilate or burst into tears. ― Katherine Addison, The Goblin Emperor The memories of a thousand separate cruelties mocked him, but no one save Maia himself had ever counted those as wrongs, and it was unjust to have them declared wrongs now, merely because he could. […]

+2 Charisma

Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce

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This book is a warm blanket; it’s the perfect read before bedtime. Pleasant, hopeful, fun.  Riley is a high school drama kid. In fact, until recently, she was dating the best actor in town. But that has ended. School is starting back up, and now her ex has a new girlfriend. And, to make things worse, Riley is in BIG TROUBLE with her parents. In what is probably the most innocent and cutest reason to get grounded ever, Riley borrowed her mom’s car without permission […]

One day your country is yours, and the next it isn’t.

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

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No matter what happens in the world, however brutal or dystopian a thing, not all is lost if there are people out there risking themselves to document it. Little sparks cause fires, too.” ― Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark The odds had been stacked against us from the start: we had no manual, no one to show us the way. Not one example of a happy couple made up of boys. How were we supposed to know what to do? Did we even believe […]

How much of yourself you have to leave behind in order to look like everyone else

Lie With Me by Philippe Besson

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I’m in this state of one-way desire. I feel this desire swarming in my belly and running up my spine. But I have to constantly contain and compress it so that it doesn’t betray me in front of others. Because I’ve already understood that desire is visible. ― Philippe Besson, Lie With Me I’m guessing that there was probably no bolt of lightning, just a warm night full of wine and fluttering moths and the feeling that nothing is really important and everything is possible. […]

My heart is wrapped up in you.

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

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“If you’re going to live, you might as well do painful, brave, and beautiful things.” ― Jeff Zentner, The Serpent King While our classmates are getting zongered at the Holiday Inn in Cookeville and getting pregnant, you and I will be playing in the sprinkler and looking up at the stars until your curfew. ― Jeff Zentner, The Serpent King After his father, the magnetic preacher of a full-on “speaking-in-tongues and handling snakes” church is sent to prison, Dillard Early Jr. has the weight of […]



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