Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

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 […]

Similar looks, different stories

Mali Under the Night Sky: A Lao Story of Home by Youme)

Some Kids by Fifi Abu

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Two picture books to add to your libraries this fall are below. Each is different, but equally unique and fun.  November 2024 will find us with a published book titled Mali Under the Night Sky: A Lao Story of Home. Youme Ly Nguyen (or Youme) is the author and illustrator of this read via an online reader copy picture book. The story of a young girl fleeing her homeland because of war is not a new one, but the way Youme has spun their tale, […]

A heartbreaking but also heartwarming story

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer

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This book was recommended by a friend. I don’t normally read books about war, because I usually can’t get into them. And the ones that aren’t super detailed and technical (that I can’t get into) are usually just relentlessly sad, and that’s not my jam either! This book was none of that. Of course it was sad, but it was so incredibly filled with hope, and family, and people relentlessly trying to do the right thing that it made it all worth it. This book […]

February-March 2024 Leftovers

The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones

A Lowcountry Bride by Preslaysa Williams

Bone White by Ronald Malfi

Alexander the Great by Phillip Freeman

Nero: Matricide, Murder and Music in Imperial Rome by Anthony Everitt and Roddy Ashworth

Beyond a Boundary by C.L.R. James

A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block

The Killing Kind by John Connolly

Shōgun by James Clavell

Nobody's Angel by Jack Clark

A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown's Most Shocking Crime by Casey Sherman

Village in the Dark by Iris Yamashita

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland

The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Woolraich

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Rain, rain, go away. I thought my reading count looked too low and then I realized I didn’t do leftovers for February, so here’s Feb-March combined. The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and Rise of the Tudors ***** Jones is such a talented historian. Gets all the important stuff of the Wars of the Roses in great detail and lets the story entertain. His Templars book will soon be on my radar. A Lowcountry Bride**** Had to read this for a library […]



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