Cannonball Read 16

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.”

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

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Somehow, despite being an English major in college and a big reader my whole life, this is a classic I had never heard of or come across. I discovered it in a very weird way, which I’ll detail after my brief review. (Isn’t reviewing classics weird? What else can you add to the narrative?) This finalist for the Pulitzer is a vibrant, gripping meditation on war, specifically, the Vietnam War, and I’m glad it’s been a focus in the American education system over the years, […]

The Banality of Good

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

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Otto and Anna Quangel are indifferent toward living under Nazi rule, but when they receive the news that their son was killed in the war, they begin a silent campaign of defiance. There’s a phrase in the afterword that’s used to sum up the central theme of this book – ‘the banality of good.’ There’s plenty of well-known stories of resistance against oppressive powers from all eras – certainly plenty I can recount from World War Two alone, plenty of lives saved and a huge […]

Fred, looking for friends in all the wrong places

Low Power: A Graphic Novel (Your Pal Fred) by Michael Rex

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Book one of the Your Pal Fred series opens with Fred waking after (I forget how many) centuries to a dystopian earth. He is a friendship robot who on the perky scale makes Sandy Duncan and Mr. Rogers look like grumps.  And in his very special way (being kind, talking things out, staring contests, etc) saves the day.  With volume two, Low Power: A Graphic Novel (Your Pal Fred) Michael Rex continues our Robot Friend Fred’s journey to make everyone friends. This time around we […]

Walk on the Wild side with magic

Amulet Volume 9: Waverider by Kazu Kibuishi

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The Amulet Series by Kazu Kibuishi was a big hit when it first appeared on the shelves of my bookstore, and I understood why, even though at the time I was just starting to get into graphic novels and fantasy was something I was reading again. It had a lot of pop and mystery. Things were fantasy, but had elements that were relatable, they even could be considered believable even though things were fantasy all the way. And the main character was also spunky and […]

Beautiful, harrowing and oh so sad

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

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CBR16 Bingo: Liberate (our protagonists are fighting in World War I to keep the world safe from the Germans) Official plot summary, because I finished this book in early April: It’s 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they’re too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle – an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, […]

Tragically beautiful

The Naked Tree by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

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The Naked Tree by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim and Janet Hong is a graphic novel adaptation of Pak Wan-Suh’s novel of the same name. I had no idea what the book was about, but the image of the cover of a young girl, with a wind-up key in her back was enticing. It also was as bit distributing. It gave me a feeling I knew what the book was going to be about, but when I was finally able to find a copy, it turned out […]



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