Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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I guess my reading vibe this year is slanting towards cozy and comforting

The Last Father-Daughter Dance: A Short Story by Lisa Wingate

Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes 1) by Travis Baldree

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I don’t know if you can call this first book exactly cozy, but it was definitely comforting.  Along with the storyline, there’s something comforting (to me at least) about a short story. There are character arcs, plot twists, and usually everything is tied up by the end. It calms the soul to not have to wait! This book is about a woman reconnecting with her ailing father. Kalista is an Olympian, and her father was a long-time high school coach. He’s scheduled for heart surgery […]

Annie with Blonde Curls

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

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This is the second time I’ve read a book this year and not known until the end that it was based on a true story. Just like my experience with Grace is Gone, I got to the end of Before We Were Yours to find A Note From the Author about the real life story of Georgia Tann. Tann is considered the “Mother of Modern Adoption,” which sounds like a really beautiful moniker, and in many ways, her work benefited children throughout the world. However, the dark […]

I want a pain I understand instead of the one I don’t.

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My mother and I are both readers, but only once in a while do we recommend a book to one another that we like. She skews towards easy beach multigenerational sagas and anything by Nora Roberts. I generally do not. When we do find something that we both like, it is usually one that is an emotional wringer and then we blame each other for suggesting the book. I think that she wanted to punch me after she read “Me Before You”.  I have similar feelings […]

A real-life Miss Hannigan

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I saw Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate on NPR’s Best Books of 2017. I’d never read anything by Wingate before and wasn’t sure what to expect. On the whole, it was an interesting page turner. Loosely based on real events, Before We Were Yours, alternates between two story lines. Avery Stafford is a present-day federal prosecutor who has recently moved back to Aiken, South Carolina. She is there to help her father, a famous Senator from a long line of prestigious politicians, who is suffering from cancer. […]

I’ll probably gift this to my aunt

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I come from a book family. I think everybody gives everybody at least one book for Christmas so it’s always fun to figure out who to give what. My father and I have very similar tastes, so that’s easy, and I’ve more or less got my mom nailed down. With my aunt, though, I always end up giving something bland and inoffensive because I really just don’t know her well enough to branch out. Before We Were Yours fits the bill nicely. The poorly kerned text […]

Orphan Train without the train

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Before We Were Yours topped several “Best Of” lists in 2017 including its win for Best Historical Fiction in the Goodreads Choice Award. I lucked out and found a copy at my library on its “Too Hot To Hold” shelf. This was a good book but not a great book; it had a slow start but picked up towards the end. It’s pretty clear how the past and present are connected but it’s a well written story. “A woman’s past need not predict her future. She can dance […]



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