Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Rumors are born with legs that can run a mile in less than a minute. Rumors eat up dreams without condiments. Rumors do not have expiration dates. Rumors can be deadly. Rumors can get you killed.”

Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D Jackson

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Jeez. And I thought Sadie was a dark and bleak YA offering. In Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson, dark and bleak would look pretty good. This book is tough to get through. But not because of the writing, which was beautiful at times. Its tough because its is painfully realistic, and real life doesn’t always have a happy ending. After a summer away visiting her grandparents, Claudia comes back to school, excited to see her best (and really, only) friend, Monday. But Monday doesn’t […]

75% OK.

Tell Me Everything by Sarah Enni

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Last week, The Fug Girls had a book contest up on their site, and the book looked familiar to me. I almost always love the books that they recommend, so I wracked my brain trying to think of how I recognized this one…and then realized it was in my box of new releases for teen readers from work. I’m of two minds on this one. I get that I am not the demographic for this. There is a world of difference between YA fiction and […]

“I wish his darkness lived outside of him, because you have to know it’s there to see it. Like all real monsters, he hides in plain sight.”

Sadie by Courtney Summers

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A few weeks ago, I had a chance to go and see Cannonball favorite Karen McManus talking about her new book, Two Can Keep a Secret, along with another YA author I hadn’t previously heard of, Megan Miranda. I asked them a few questions during the panel, including wondering what they — as writers of suspenseful YA fiction — liked to read, and were currently reading. They both, without hesitation, told me to read Sadie by Courtney Summers, right away. So, I did. I knew […]

Harry Dresden and the Dark Hallow: Yes, there are wizards, but this ain’t Hogwarts

Dead Beat by Jim Butcher

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I’m still slowly making my way through these Harry Dresden books, all read to me by the fantastic James Marsters. And, as many cannonballers before me have stated, I’m enjoying each book slightly more than the one that came before it. I’m now fully invested into Harry’s world, and I can’t wait to start the next one. In this one, Harry and Butters (the polka enthusiast-medical examiner), are on the run from a group of necromancers who have descended upon Chicago, all looking for something […]

“Having a trash chute was one of my favorite things about my building. It made me feel important, like I was participating in the world. My trash mixed with the trash of others. The things I touched touched things other people had touched. I was contributing, I was connecting.”

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

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My Year of Rest and Relaxation was on a bunch of “Best of” lists at the end of 2018, and there was something about the cover that drew me to it. And now that I’ve finished it, while I’m glad I read it to see what the fuss was all about, I honestly have no idea if I liked it or hated it. I think both. But mostly hated it. We have an unnamed narrator living in Manhattan in 1999-2000. She’s in her 20s, has […]

I did not expect this.

Blended by Sharon Draper

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Last week, my boss gave me this book and asked me if I would prepare a presentation on it for some workshops we have coming up. It looked cute: pink and white stripes on the cover and a girl spilling her ice cream. Sounded fine to me! And the book was indeed fine. Blended tells the story of Isabella, a sixth grader with divorced parents. She struggles to adapt to the back-and-forth custody arrangement that her parents have, and doesn’t feel like she can call […]



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