Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Sometimes I wish my first word was “quote”, so that on my death bed, my last words could be “end quote”.- Steven Wright

I See You’ve Called in Dead: A Novel by John Kenney

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Obituary writer Bud Stanley has fallen into a funk, existing (not living) in his own life. Divorced (his wife left him for a coworker, an admittedly more interesting man), half-hearted in his job, Bud’s final straw comes when the blind date a coworker set him up with shows up at the bar just to tell him she’s had a better offer. So, in a case of drunken “wouldn’t it be funny”-ness, he publishes his own obituary in the newspaper he works for. (Who knew that […]

an art piece

She Followed the Moon Back to Herself by Amanda Lovelace

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The title She Followed the Moon Back to Herself by Amanda Lovelace is the first poetry book I read cover to cover without stopping too long in between poems (just to catch my breath and not have poems bleed into each other) or jumping to the end to find out “what happens” in a while. Now, this is not to say OMG Best Book Ever, but there was something about it that was captivating. This means I enjoyed it but was not blown away at […]

Watch out for Grandma Billy and the crazy Gods (I’m more scare of GB though!)

Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher

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No matter how many times you tell me, I cannot believe that T. Kingfisher is Ursula Vernon (and Vernon is Kingfisher). They must be two different people! After all Vernon has one voice and Kingfisher has another. Okay, maybe four people actually, as Vernon has three main tones that I have found. The first is fun, quirky, and young. The second has a middle ground voice but can be edgy. And the third is mature and not to Kingfisher’s level, but is not Vernon’s middle […]

A lesser-known story by Goodnight Moon author

The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds by Margaret Wise Brown and Ofra Amit

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In 1948, a year after she rewilded the landscape of literature with Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown watched the love of her life fade to black. Michael Strange, born Blanche Oelrichs, had cast an instant spell on Margaret–outspoken, sophisticated, and self-possessed . . . Both women were born in the wrong century, bent on bending it to their will; both were accidental radicals, just by living unselfconsciously . . . Margaret loved Michael with unassailable devotion, and Michael was dying. So she did the hardest […]

Death tells a story

Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt by Ben Reeves

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This book was heartbreaking. Somebody somewhere suggested it to me (it could’ve even been an article I read). We start out with Travis, who is Death. He kinda meanders through his life taking people when it’s their time. I think he lives in New York. Oh and a random white cat finds its way into his apartment (you can see it on the cover) and he’s just very kind to the cat. His solitude cracks a little bit when an eight-year-old neighbor named Layla starts […]

I’ll still look into their graphic novels though

Instead of Dying (Colorado Prize for Poetry) by Lauren Haldeman

Calenday by Lauren Haldeman

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A few years ago I read Lauren Haldeman’s Team Photograph. It was one of those books I liked, but was not really about it at the same time. What was it about? How did I feel about it? Did I really like it? The answers are, “I don’t know.” And oddly enough that’s what I think I did like about it. Everything that can make a book a book I do not like made me not really hate the book. I figured I’d read it […]



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