Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Even When I’m Leaving

Even When I'm Leaving by S.C. Meyer

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When she returns to her hometown for her dad’s funeral, Victoria (Vic) doesn’t expect to see her high school ex, Tony, much less be rescued by him from the side of the road when her ancient sedan breaks down just outside of the city limits. Through a series of flashbacks, Vic remembers the last summer she and Tony were together, the summer when their friendship turned to romance, and also the summer when Tony’s mother passed away from an aggressive form of cancer. Even though […]

Mom and Me

The Brunch Shift by Adrienne Thurman

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When reading a book, you always start with the cover. When I saw it as an online reader, the cover image was just a thumbnail for The Brunch Shift. I did not think I was going to like it based on the cover alone as unfortunately, there did not seem to be anything grabbing me. I figured I knew the story, “Mom was at the restaurant while the child was home with dad or grandparent (other adult) and waiting. It would be a story about […]

“You had a chance to ask the universe for something,” Jamie says. “But instead you chose to register a complaint.”

Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders

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Lessons in Magic and Disaster has been so hard to review because my response to it has been deeply personal. It’s an achingly beautiful book. The ache starts in the opening paragraph, Jamie has never known what to say to her mother. And now–when it matters most of all, when she’s on a rescue mission–she knows even less.” Jamie discovered as a child that she could do magic. If she found a spot in nature at the intersection of cultivated and abandoned, and wished for […]

That feeling

Saudade: Our Longing for Brazil, by Ana Crespo and André Ceolin

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Older books are just as good as a current book or a future publication book. Because, Hello … BOOK! Books are things we long for! Hope for! Need! Now, I am not sure if it fits the definition of saudade (a word that has no real direct to English translation, but basically means “an intense longing for something or someone.”) What is saudade, is the mothers feeling in the story Saudade: Our Longing for Brazil, for the things she left behind in Brazil. Ana Crespo, […]

Are you ready to think about tomorrow?” he asked.

The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond

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I do love a heist, and Gwenda Bond’s The Frame-Up is a good story wrapped around a heist. I think it’s a standalone, but I would not say no to more of this crew doing their version of a heist with magic in the future. Dani Poissant has been working solo in the decade since she turned her art thief mother in to the FBI. She’s a Robin Hood style grifter – targeting bad people, taking their money, and giving a big chunk of it to […]

The defining feeling of my childhood was that of being told there wasn’t a problem when I knew damn well there was.

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh

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It wasn’t all bad, that poor rural place. Though money was scarce, you would have had your basic needs met because we knew how to grow and build things. ― Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth I am grateful for my early life, and I wouldn’t wish it on any child. ― Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth The women I knew were […]



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