Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Folktales and cycles through history

Songs for Ghosts by Clara Kumagai

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Songs for Ghosts fulfills the “culture” square on CBR17 Bingo. Songs for Ghosts is a beautiful, tragic story of the power of stories and love, as well as the way past choices can create cycles throughout time. I’m unfamiliar with it, but in the afterword the author talks about Songs for Ghosts being a retelling of Madama Butterfly opera by Puccini where Cio-Cio-San has more agency than just the reductive submissive wife trope. Adam is a seventeen year old whose boyfriend just broke up with […]

A firestorm of a story!

The Story of my Anger by Jasminne Mendez

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The Story of my Anger counts for the “school” square on CBR17 Bingo. I was immediately drawn to The Story of My Anger because Yuli’s pose on the cover is so defiant and powerful, and I knew I wanted to read her story. Told in verse, this book follows Yuli and her group of friends who are trying to prevent the books that have allowed them to be seen in curriculum from being banned. Especially in today’s sociopolitical landscape and how many books are being […]

Love is Love and Hate is Hate

Ritu Weds Chandni by Ameya Narvankar

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Diversity The CBR17 Pie Chart Challenge Ritu Weds Chandni by Ameya Narvankar is currently available. However, I found an old online  reader copy to read. I thought I had read it before, but it did not feel familiar to me. Therefore I think I just looked at it and “put it aside.” Thankfully I did find it again as it takes a couple of familiar themes but adds a modern take to them, and I was in the right mood for it as well, as […]

The scariest thing about this is how hard you’ll laugh

The Wild Ones by Megan Lacera and Jorge Lacera

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The Wild Ones by Megan Lacera and Jorge Lacera came up in my online reader copy list. It is currently available, which is a good thing as you are going to want to get a copy for your young child. This is a cute story about faith in friends and monsters! Yes, monsters. Best friends love monsters (Frogzilla anyone?) and they are convinced there is a monster in the forest. When their home is slated for demolition for a new business to come into town, […]

I like the complex simplicity

Boy Here, Boy There by Chuck Groenink

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A recent lunchtime was a few small pieces of cold pepperoni pizza, a lime seltzer (I really don’t like seltzer but I’m expanding my literal tastes) and a few online books. One of those was Boy Here, Boy There by Chuck Groenink.  I will start with the ending of the book, or more specifically, the extras at the end. They talk about how Neanderthal and Homo sapiens were. Mostly focusing on Neanderthal, as the main character is a boy of a tribe of Neanderthals, we […]

Beautiful reads

Seeker of the Truth: Kailash Satyarthi’s Fight to End Child Labor by Srividhya Venkat

A Song For August: The Inspiring Life of Playwright August Wilson by Sally Denmead

Love of the Half-Eaten Peach by Lee Wind

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I debated if I should write a review about three books I only read as samples. Yet, I realized that they are must know about and I do not think they will have any surprises when they finally come out.  All were read via online samples of the picture book. In mid-late July 2024 we will see Seeker of the Truth: Kailash Satyarthi’s Fight to End Child Labor. Srividhya Venkat’s book was the one that had the smallest sample, but I was hooked. Starting as […]



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