Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I found a new place to dwell

Heartbreak Hotel by Micol Arianna Beltramini

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Several books on my recent HBR (Have Been Read) list have had similar feelings and/or themes. And yet, each one is its own unique read. Heartbreak Hotel by Micol Arianna Beltramini and illustrator Agnese Innocente falls into this “alike but not alike” category. This coming of age story is similar to the stories The History of Everything: A Graphic Novel by Victoria Evans, Raging Clouds by Yudori, and The Flip Side by Jason Walz. Yet, it is also its own work and has its own […]

Topsy turvy and then some

The Flip Side: A Graphic Novel by Jason Walz

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The Flip Side: A Graphic Novel is an unusual book that has all the feelings, but not the ones you might think of at first. They are the ones that we can share simultaneously, but at the same time, each of us have our own way of dealing with them. The first is grief and the second fear. Jason Walz shows us this through the eyes of two main characters. One, a boy who lost his best friend to (assuming) cancer (or other similar illness), […]

“Oona was still learning, everytime she leaped no matter the year someone important would be absent from life.”

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

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Buzzword Title Challenge 25: Alliteration Buzzword Cover Challenge 25: Eyes CBR17 Bingo: O (A book title that starts with O) Official plot summary (because I read this back in July): Just because life may be out of order, doesn’t mean it’s broken. It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight, she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain […]

Experience of sadness

Sad Book by Michael Rosen

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A while back I found the companion book to Michael Rosen’s Sad Book. Therefore, I figured I should see how the whole thing started and got a copy of the book from my library. After finishing it, I think that The Sad Book is a well done book on dealing with grief, but the second book, Where Are You, Eddie? (coming in Summer 2026) was more detailed and the stronger read of the two. With that said, I feel that The Sad Book could be […]

Dead gods, decapitated corpses and dastardly ex-husbands

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

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CBR17 Bingo: Purple (most of the cover, barring the cover image, is a lovely lavender purple) Stephen is one of the paladins of the Saint of Steel (who was a god, despite the name), who died very suddenly and unexpectedly a few years back. No one thought gods could die, and a lot of his paladins killed themselves and caused massive amounts of damage when it happened. Now, Stephen and the six other paladins who remain are housed at the Temple of the White Rat […]

Sad books that help make it better

The Fabric of Us by Aditi Anand

Where Are You, Eddie? A Companion to Michael Rosen's Sad Book by Michael Rosen and Gill Smith

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This is a review that seems like another review about a book I almost didn’t write up, but it is not really. Oh, yes, I almost did not write up The Fabric of Us by Aditi Anand (due later May 2026; read via an online reader copy) because I could not think of enough words for a full review. At least not by itself. It was only when I read  Where Are You, Eddie? A Companion to Michael Rosen’s Sad Book by Michael Rosen and […]



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