Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Taking a Trip Down Memory Lane

The Stopping Place by Marden Dahlstedt

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How many books have you hung on to since childhood? As the daughter of a librarian, my answer is, “not many.” I did hang on to my Scholastic Book Club copy of Marden Dahlstedt’s The Stopping Place, from fifth grade though. I recently came across my slim paperback story of a girl from Brooklyn forced to move to New Jersey’s Pine Barrens when her hippie family relocates. (The horror!) I saved a few books from my childhood, but most of my favorites came from the library. I still […]

Gus the Fisherman

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The River Why, by David James Duncan, is one of those books that I love to re-read.  I’ve read it probably ten times over the last 20 years, and it always makes me happy.  Sure, I basically know the story by heart, but it does my heart good to re-read it. So, what’s it about? Well, it’s about a lot of things.  And if you asked me the last time I read it what it was about, I’d probably say something different than I’m going […]

The Interestings, maybe not so Interesting, but still compelling

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This was my first read for the Schaumburg Library book club “Beyond the Book.” This was a great read for a book club because, well, this book was not beloved overall. There were 16 people in the club and I think 4 of us (self included) gave it a 4 out of 5, everyone else did a 3 or lower. But that made for a lively discussion. The Interestings follows a group of friends from when they meet, at an arts camp in the summer […]

Race with a Capital R

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In the last blog post, I mentioned I had a hard time finding a followup to 2 really good books I read last month. After rejecting ever book in my library TBR pile, I started rummaging through the multiple TBR piles around my house. (Tell me I am not alone in that!) In stack #2, I found a copy of a book recommended to me by a student a few years ago for consideration for summer reading. I never got around to reading it because […]

Break down the self, offer yourself up like dust to the universe.

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In the Cannonball Read Facebook group, someone awesome posted an article called “The best books of 2016 list you get when you combine 36 “Best Books of 2016” lists.” The Girls is 6th on that list, appearing in 10 of the 36 “Best Books of 2016” lists combined for the “ultimate list.” It’s okay. Here’s what it has going for it: it’s completely real. Here’s what it has against it: it’s not new. The Girls is the story of an older woman reminiscing about that […]

It made me want to go guava picking

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3.5 stars Reading How the García Girls Lost Their Accents made me really want to re-read The House on Mango Street. Not because I remember really liking it when I read it in school, but because I think I have a little bit more maturity to appreciate it now, and because it’s also a book composed of vignettes that represents a particular Latina immigrant experience. But I don’t remember it very well, so I am curious why one gets picked to be read in schools, […]



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