Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Little People, Big Dreams in one spot

Little People, BIG DREAMS: Treasury: 50 Stories of Brilliant Dreamers by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and various illustrators

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Do you think that when Mozart was first performing, people realized they were living at the same time as someone who would have a centuries long influence on music? Do you think someone heard Freddie Mercury sing and said, “That boy is going to live forever?” Or did they realize they were walking on the Earth along with Neil Armstrong? It was not until recently that I realized Salvador Dali and I were breathing the same air!  Not to mention, I was living at the […]

The Gods of Tango

The Gods of Tango by Carolina de Robertis

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This book took me by surprise! I am not sure what I was expecting, but this was MORE.  Leda is 17 years old. She is from a tightly monitored family in Italy who experiences a tragedy that is only obliquely referenced at first. She and her betrothed, Dante, decide to emigrate to Argentina, but when she arrives in Buenos Aires in 1913, she is shocked to find that Dante has died, leaving her a widow before she’s ever really had a husband. She tries to […]

“No one has listened to me my whole life and I really want to be heard.”

Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna

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My observation about punks, the real ones, is that they’re hard on everyone. Even themselves. Their highest standards come from a desire for things to be better than they are. It’s from having an open heart and caring deeply. In my younger years, a lot of my heroes were exacting artists who cared deeply. Unfortunately, a lot of them are now dead. The world was too much. Therefore, I’m very interested in the punks who survived and seem to be more at peace with the […]

“I’ve never made plans with anyone before, Theo says softly, but you make me want to buy a five-year diary just so I can write your name on every page.”

Under Your Spell by Laura Wood

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4.5 stars Clementine “Clemmie” Monroe has a lot of trust issues, and they’re all because of the men in her life. Clemmie is one of three sisters, born within three months of one another, from three very different women who all got knocked up by her carefree rock star father, Rip Harris. Instead of being jealous or upset about the fact that her husband had been unfaithful, Clemmie’s mother divorced her father, bought a large house and invited the two other women to live with […]

I’ve got the butter knife blues

lues with a Butter Knife: The Unstoppable Music of CeDell Davis by Jason Peterson and R. Gregory Christie

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Out of all the music I enjoy listening to, Blues has never been a top one. However, I appreciate how it has shaped the music world. I appreciate the hard work, troubles that people had to overcome and how it represented (and still does) a world rich in culture. And yes, I like it, there are a few songs I have enjoyed, but it is not my “go to” when it comes to listening. With that said, I know a few of the big names, […]

Never too late to educate

Blues Boy: The B. B. King Story by Alice Faye Duncan and Carl Joe Williams

I Am the River: Sarah E. Ray and the Bob-Lo Boat by Patricia Lee Gauch, Leah Henderson and Kristle Marshall

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It might be the middle of February, but it is never too late to start reading about Black History. My favorite historical stories are about people we do not know a lot about. Or if we do know them, they are not huge. That is why when I saw Blues Boy: The B. B. King Story by Alice Faye Duncan, and illustrator Carl Joe Williams (available but read via an online reader) I almost did not read it. I mean, BB King is cool, don’t […]



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