Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise: Here I am, please tell me your story; here is my story, please listen.”

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

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Look, I’m just gonna do the thing. Here is (part of) the blurb: On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, “Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.’” The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the […]

Reading the city

City Under the City by Dan Yaccarino

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I think I have read City Under the City before. However, I did not really remember it at all. Sure, things seemed a smidgen familiar, but the theme is similar in other works and I always find samples here and there so that’s why a page or two wasn’t completely “fresh.”  And that is not necessarily a bad thing as I was able to read it fresh. And like with another book I read and this happened to me, I was able to take something […]

Books, friends and mystery

Escape from M. Lemoncello’s Library, the graphic novel by Chris Grabenstein

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Not having read the novel, that Escape from M. Lemoncello’s Library, the graphic novel is based on (that is of the same name), I am not sure how this book was adapted. However, the author Chris Grabenstein did the adaptation, so I am assuming it is mostly the same. Regardless, this graphic novel illustrated by Douglas Holgate is a fun, easy read that has puns, hidden surprises, a good message, and a lot of books that are mentioned, that are read and that are used […]

A little love

Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall’

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Around seventh grade I first heard about the Japanese American internment camp stories because my aunt is Japanese American. But it was not until I was much older that it clicked. My aunt, her siblings, her mother, and my cousins, not to mention her aunts, uncles and cousins would have been incarcerated. And while I was able to find a little here and there, it was difficult until the last few years to find things that were well done or interesting enough to keep me […]

Does everyone suck? Well, at least they have magic

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

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BINGO – Bird – As in, birds of a feather flock together Six of the best magicians are invited to join The Alexandrian Society which protects all of the knowledge of the Library of Alexandria. Six are invited to live and study at the Library, but only five will make the cut after two years. Nico and Libby are both physicist magicians who can control the forces of nature like fire, waves, and the physical aspect of things. Parisa is a telepath. Callum is an […]

Lost in The Midnight Library

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

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The Midnight Library by Matt Haig has an intriguing premise of exploring potential lives. The main character Nora arrives in a mysterious library after trying to commit suicide. She is depressed and the loss of her cat sends her over the edge. The book introduces a type of time travel where Nora experiences the what-if situations from her life. She picks a book on the shelf and becomes transported into a new life where she makes a different choice. What if she stayed in her […]



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