Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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June 2024 Leftovers

The First Quarry by Max Allan Collins

Kings of the Garden: The New York Knicks and Their City by Adam J. Criblez

Out On The Cutting Edge by Lawrence Block

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nevada by Imogene Binnie

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford Dictionary by Simon Winchester

Exalted by Anna Dorn

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Happy Pride to all who celebrate! The First Quarry**** I was disappointed in the quality of the last couple of Quarry novels so I wasn’t expecting much…but this was good. One of his best plots and I really enjoyed it. Could’ve done without the racism. Big believer that you can show the casual racism of the past (1970s) without wallowing in it and the book does that. Otherwise, it’s good. Kings of the Garden: The New York Knicks and Their City**** Stretching a four star […]

Red Kites and Black Birds

The Pebble: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Marius Marcinkevičius

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The Pebble: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Marius Marcinkevičius, illustrated by Inga Dagilė and translated by Jura Avizienis is a clever telling of the Holocaust story via one child’s experiences. We follow a child from inside to the ghetto, to the day they leave and do not return. The mystical element might be assumed “real” and therefore, having a younger child missing the metaphor, but older readers/children and adults will appreciate it. The artwork is sparse, but creates a tone that allows the realism […]

Finding yourself

A Sky of Paper Stars by Susie Yi

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A Sky of Paper Stars by Susie Yi is probably more of a 3.5 than a pure 4 rating as there were a few bumps for me. However, I enjoyed seeing Korean culture, some of it I knew and other aspects new. My unscientific opinion is that probably Korean culture is not known well by the aimed age reader (a stronger 8 to 12). My experience with Asian based characters seems to lean towards Chinese first, with Japanese second, then the people of Taiwan and […]

Friends, pets and understanding

Calvin and the Sugar Apples by Inês F. Oliveira

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Calvin and the Sugar Apples by Inês F. Oliveira and a few illustrations by Vanessa Balleza is a cute story about friendship and loss. There are a few illustrations that help highlight a few points of the story. The story is a hit or miss for most people (a few might be in between, like I was, but I don’t see a lot of middle ground). Our young heroine is a girl who might be on the autism scale, or is just a bit young/naïve […]

“We are never prepared. We are always overwhelmed at some point.”

Where the Waves Turn Back by Tyson Motsenbocker

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Where the Waves Turn Back: A Forty-Day Pilgrimage Along the California Coast by Tyson Motsenbocker My rating: 5 of 5 stars “Where the Waves Turn Back” is Tyson Motsenbocker’s memoir of walking the Camino Real from San Diego to San Francisco after the death of his mother. The book opens a few weeks before his mother’s death. She’s in hospice and the family has gathered to be with her. In one of her conversations with Tyson, she challenges him to take time to grieve and […]

Breathtaking, thoughtful

Wildful by Kengo Kurimoto

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I was hanging out in a vehicle, waiting for the driver to come out of the grocery store. I had a few books with me and decided to pick the biggest one up (well, longest physically/horizontally) as the sun was hitting me right in the eyes and thought maybe it would block things. It mostly did, as it was (as I said) horizontal and not the usual vertical style. And what this book turned into was not just a poor woman’s sunshade, but one of […]



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