Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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, […]

“…his own losses were irreplaceable:” The Life and Times of a Private Secretary to Royalty

End of an Era: Letters and Journals of Sir Alan Lascelles 1887-1920 by Sir Alan Lascelles (Edited by Duff Hart-Davis)

King's Counsellor (Abdication and War: The Diaries of Sir Alan 'Tommy' Lascelles) by Sir Alan Lascelles (Edited by Duff Hart-Davis)

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I’m glad that I read these out of order, because going from reading the last volume, where Tommy is fully mature and in his element to the first volume, where he is a child, really drove home to me how much growing up and having the time to think and experience life can make someone less annoying and more thoughtful. I think if I’d started with the first book, it would have soured me on him because he is very of his time and class […]

“Should I be taking you dancing?” “Not in those clothes. I’ve standards.”

Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles

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And here he was now in his own bookshop, well fed, usefully busy, and enjoyably partnered. It made the violent assault and threat of torture seem quite worthwhile.” ― K.J. Charles, Slippery Creatures Will Darling has returned from serving in World War 1 and is starting to get back on his feet. After being unable to find employment upon returning to London, he is taken in by his estranged uncle, who runs a massive bookshop. When his uncle passes away from a stroke, Will takes […]

Animals and Kids changing the world

 Cher Ami Comes Through: Heroic Carrier Pigeon of World War I (Heroic Animals), by Nel Yomtov

 School Strike for Climate (Movements and Resistance) by Nel Yomtov

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I am assuming the below titles are from a series called Graphic Novel, with each having its own sub-series within that umbrella title. But I could be wrong, as stranger things have happened (I got my dad to eat fish and chips with me more than once). And in this series they take subjects and introduce them to readers ages 8 to 14. The younger side of this age timeline might need a little assistance, while the older might need to be a smidgen below traditional […]

It was 10:58 AM

The Eleventh Hour by Jacques Goldstyn

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I want to just put a billion tears on this review for The Eleventh Hour. OMG! This book is NOT for the sensitive reader. It is a picture book (due in paper mid-August 2023; read via an online reader copy), but I do not know one child I would give this, too. With that said, it might be an interesting book for a classroom doing World War One or Canadian history, or for any Veteran’s Day events. The story is about two friends, Jim and […]

Both influential and overlooked

Suzanne: The Jazz Age Goddess of Tennis by Tom Humberstone

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CBR15Passport Own While I was on a short vacation, I finished a fictional novel of a little-known black dancer of the 1840s, William Henry Lane, or Master Juba. And I guess I was in the mood for stories of real, but not necessarily extremely famous people, because then I started Suzanne: The Jazz Age Goddess of Tennis. Which is a memoir of Suzanne Lenglen, a French female tennis player. She was known, at the time worldwide, but she was not necessarily known for her tennis […]



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