Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Asking questions and getting answers

Jibberjack, Fibberjack: A Made-Up Monster Mystery by Stefanie Gamarra

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I almost did not read Jibberjack, Fibberjack: A Made-Up Monster Mystery book. The cover illustration was a bit on the silly side and I was thinking, “eh, maybe not.” Yet, something told me I needed to. Now, this is not the WOWY BEST EVER book, but it was funny, clever and has just enough of an edge to it that makes it great for multiple ages. The elements will charm kid readers and adults will want more of this great clue finding detective.  The silly […]

In which I write 1,200 words about non-book things

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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There is a long history of “public intellectuals” in America. Ben Franklin and Alexander Hamilton all the way down to Noam Chomsky and Susan Sontag. When I was a younger man, I became fascinated with the idea of a public intelligentsia. Not any specific person, but the idea of knowledgeable, erudite experts who wrote and spoke for public, rather than academic, consumption. When YouTube became a thing and old clips that had previously been difficult to find became readily available to anyone with an interest, […]

Allegory of power

Pigeons!: A Fable For Our Times by Marc Chalvin

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If I have one complaint about Pigeons!: A Fable For Our Times by Marc Chalvin (due December 2025, read via an oline reader) is that the people who need to read this book, won’t. This is the commentary about what is happening today. It comes out and tells us how the Dictator will use anything he can to stay in power. It comes out and tells us there are well meaning people, but they are missing a few pieces of the puzzle. And those who […]

The Pharaoh (Female), the Pharaoh (Male), and the Priestess

Neferura by Malayna Evans

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As the daughter of two pharaohs and the sister of another, princess and high priestess Neferura is one of the foremost people in the kingdom. But as her co-regent mother and brother fight for power, she’s just another piece on their board – unless she can manage to break free. In first grade we had a unit about ancient Egypt, where we learned all about how they worshipped cats and pulled brains down through mummies’ noses and invented paper. And of course we learned about […]

We means We

While We the People Is All the People: A Picture Book by Howard W. Reeves and Duncan Tonatiuh

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While We the People Is All the People: A Picture Book talks about an important subject, I did not feel there was anything new or fresh added. Howard W. Reeves knows what they wanted to say and that comes across. They wanted to show how we are a community, that freedoms belong to all, and in a poetic fashion shows how we can accomplish this. But we have heard similar things before. However, the presentation of the illustrations by Duncan Tonatiuh was interesting and did […]

“A poem was pinned under Hoshiar’s picture of young Duleep: “I have been thrown into a far-flung place, had everything, all that I once cherished, my Kingdoms and my very life taken from me. I am now in a foreign place, so far from my people. So far from my homeland.”

The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge, and India's Quest for Independence by Anita Anand

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A Indian freedom fighter waited more than two decades to exact revenge for the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre which was ordered by the British Raj – but the story is more complicated and less cinematic than it has been often depicted since. At the start of this book, the author notes that as the descendent of Indians, she had to set aside her natural aversion to the British Raj and admiration for Udham Singh to tell the story in as unbiased a way as she could. […]



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