Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Well, It Ain’t Ozzie and Harriet

Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven

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Jennifer Niven’s titular Newmans are a family comprised of father Del, mother Dinah and sons Guy and Shep. They’re a typical American family, or at least they play one on TV. The setting is 1964, and Meet the Newmans has been on radio and then television for over a decade, presenting wholesome entertainment for all ages. But in the turbulent 1960s, the Newmans are starting to seem more than a little out of touch. When a brutal pan appears in the New York Times, and […]

I think the marketing people should find other books to compare this book to

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

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3.5 stars #CBR11 Bingo: Youths! From Goodreads: Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.  When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when […]

“Everyone in my life is a stranger, and that includes me.”

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

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I enjoyed the heartbreaking All the Bright Places so when I saw Jennifer Niven’s follow up, Holding Up the Universe, I snapped it up. Niven again focuses on two teens who, up until now, have had no reason to spend any time together but are weighed down by similar stories. Jack Masselin is a popular high school baseball player with an on again off again relationship with the star of the drill team. He also has Prosopagnosia, a disorder where you cannot recognize faces even the faces of […]

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park is apt

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

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As I said in last night’s reviews, I have been listening to a lot of YA audiobooks on my commute and next up is All the Bright Places which nearly brought me to tears as I took my exit Friday morning. Trigger warning for suicide. “It’s my experience that people are a lot more sympathetic if they can see you hurting, and for the millionth time in my life I wish for measles or smallpox or some other easily understood disease just to make it easier on […]

We Don’t Ever Leave the Old World Behind. We Just Create a New One.

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

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A delightful way to officially begin my 2019 reading year.  This novel by Jennifer Niven was part of a pile of YA novels I checked out of my college’s library before winter break and so far it’s been my favorite.  Similar to her first novel, All the Bright Places, this novel focuses on the developing relationship between two Indiana high school students, and the story is told by both characters in alternating chapters. Libby Strout is excited and dreading her first day of school since […]

“We’re all weird and damaged in our own way. You’re not the only one.”

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Okay so this book was really good, as many of y’all have already noted on CBR. I won’t be saying anything new here — just adding to the recommendations! “Dear friend, You are not a freak. You are wanted. You are necessary. You are the only you there is. Don’t be afraid to leave the castle. It’s a great big world out there. Love, a fellow reader” It’s the story of Libby Strout, a girl who was once called “America’s Fattest Teen”. She gained a […]



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