Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I don’t know what the excitement is all about. It’s not like sharks attack people or anything….

I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916: A Graphix Book by Lauren Tarshis and adapted by Georgia Ball

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I set myself two goals this year. One was to read a book a day (it averages out to that, but I actually didn’t read a book every day), and the second was to do 12 Cannonballs. As of this review I have 26 books to go… We’ll see! So, one of the ways I was trying to read a book a day was to do simple books. Not books that were simplistic (See Jane. See Dick. See Dick and Jane), but easier reads, fun […]

I only finished Part I and already knew I liked it

Ethel's Song: Ethel Rosenberg's Life in Poems by Barbara Krasner

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I know little about Ethel Greenglass/Rosenberg’s life other than “the big one” (you know that thing about her and her husband being spies for the Soviet Union). But who was Ethel Rosenberg? In Ethel’s Song: Ethel Rosenberg’s Life in Poems we see the woman from a child, to school girl, to a worker, to married woman, to finally the accused spy. We see her life, her hopes, her thoughts, her dreams, her love of singing and acting, her devotion to Julius Rosenberg, and of course, […]

Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Johnny Cash, happened because there was Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll!: Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll by Tonya Bolden

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 cbr15bingo Queer Lives: never officially confirmed, but she is a queer icon/role model and probably was either bisexual or a lesbian.  You need many books in your life. And Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll!: Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll, is one of them. Tonya Bolden took a woman that I knew a little about and reinforced that information and added some new as well. And Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar: The Musical Story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the […]

When AIDS crashed the party

The Other Pandemic: An AIDS Memoir by Lynn Curlee

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CBR15Passport Different genres (Nonfiction as memoir)   Holy Flying Monkeys!  The Other Pandemic: An AIDS Memoir was not what I expected. My first thought was, “Um…do we really need a book about AIDS? Didn’t we already “do that?” But then I realized two things, first it was a memoir and not a factual book (my bad) and second, especially as I got into it, I realized that yes, we really do need this book. This is not a book about AIDS, but about Lynn Curlee […]

Gilbert Baker and a Grand ol’ Flag

Sewing the Rainbow: A Story about Gilbert Baker by Gayle E. Pitman

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Sewing the Rainbow: A Story about Gilbert Baker is good introduction for older children. Baker was a young man who lived in a gray world, especially after his art supplies and drawings were taken from him. He was a young man that was drafted, but who would not shoot a gun no matter what names he was called. And he was a man who knew how to put his glittery, wonderful, colorful self out there. And how to represent the community he was part of. […]

And I thought my new quilt was bada$$

Stitch by Stitch: Cleve Jones and the AIDS Memorial Quilt by Rob Sanders

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Even though Stitch by Stitch: Cleve Jones and the AIDS Memorial Quilt came out in 2021, I found a copy online. And because of that, I was unable to read all the extras at the end as it was too small to read (darn my old eyes an no zoom features). But that just means I will have to get a copy for myself, for several friends and at least two libraries, as I know there is more than I was able to get! Stitch […]



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