Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Always stirring up treble

Crescent Moon Marching (Volume 1) by Hamachi Yamada

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Crescent Moon Marching (Volume 1) by Hamachi Yamada is a good first volume. It has the manga elements people will enjoy and there isn’t any violence. Yes, there is a bit of bullying, but nothing too over the top (I’m not saying that is a good thing, but it’s just not the focus of things). And while the usual elements of manga are there (the images, coloring, details, way to read), there is one thing that makes it different from other books: it uses the […]

It is more than Gangnam Style or Demon Hunters

The Discovery of K-pop: The Asian Hall of Fame by Oliver Chin, Juan Calle and Phil Amara

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If loving K-Pop music is wrong, I know a lot of people who are very openly wrong. I mean, I know of a woman who is a grandmother of an early teen, who is a BTS fan. I mean fan girl fan level. But hey, I was a New Kids on the Block Fan so who am I to judge? We all have our boy band(s) to love regardless of the decades behind our years. However, what I know about K-Pop can fit on a […]

Growing with dance

Dare You to Dance by Rebecca Mock

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Lately I have been finding myself reading books that have a couple bumps in the flow of the story, but eventually once I let myself get into things, I’m good to go. And Dare You to Dance by Rebecca Mock is another one of those stories. This does not mean I disliked the story, but I won’t be putting it in my Top Ten Best Books of the Year. I will, however, put it on my couple dozen You Might Like This Book list. Overall […]

Balance

The Tightrope Wanderer by Federica Ortolan and Marco Leoni

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Ironically, not feeling well while reading an online reader copy might have helped me love the story even more than I would have if I was in perfect health. You see, The Tightrope Wanderer by Federica Ortolan and illustrator Marco Leoni would have probably been just another story about a person who did what he loved, grew old and then moved on. And it would have been nice, but nothing special. Instead, I came away with an appreciation for it that I am not really […]

I wonder if they say, “Break a leg” for good luck in India?

The First Girl on Stage: Tunga Dances the Yakshagana by Shruthi Rao

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Are you looking for a good story about breaking the gender barrier with a subject not many might know about. The First Girl on Stage: Tunga Dances the Yakshagana by Shruthi Rao and  illustrator Devika Joglekar might be what you are looking for.  The girl of the story becomes obsessed with the dances she sees on stage. The swirling, the costumes, the colors, the excitement she copies all the time. At first, her family finds it amusing, then not so much, as she continues to […]

Music puzzle

Piece by Piece: How Stephen Sondheim Made Musical Puzzles Come Alive by Erin Frankel

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Picture books. Love them or hate them they are a genre that has expanded my knowledge over the years. I have learned about volcanoes, bats, famous artistic nuns, poems and more. And Piece by Piece: How Stephen Sondheim Made Musical Puzzles Come Alive by Erin Frankel and illustrator Stacy Innerst added to it with a poetic look at Stephen Sondheim and his works. While not a “pure biography” of the composer, the highlights of his work and life are addressed. Things are whimsical and a […]



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