Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Archives for December 2021

America’s First Superhero

Zorro's Shadow by Stephen J. C. Andes

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This non-fiction examination of the Zorro character is pretty interesting. I felt the connection between a Mexican highwayman in early California, Joachim Murrieta, to the swordsman from pulp fiction and Disney was tenuous, but it was interesting reading. Starting with histories of the robber and an Irishman who was killed trying to liberate Mexico from the Spanish a hundred years before the Mexican revolution, Mr. Andes shows the effect of these two men as potential prototypes for Zorro. As the author drives from Mexico City […]

“Why, oh, why did you have to give birth to a son who hasn’t given us a moment’s peace since the day he was born?” 

The Great Brain by John D Fitzgerald

More Adventures of the Great Brain by John D Fitzgerald

Me and My Little Brain by John D Fitzgerald

The Great Brain at the Academy by John D Fitzgerald

The Great Brain Reforms by John D Fitzgerald

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I know I have written about this magical place before, but I need to reiterate that for a kid who loved to read, there was no greater place on earth than The New England Mobile Book Fair. It was a huge wholesale book warehouse in my hometown, and my mom’s favorite place to go. While she browsed the aisles looking for paperbacks by Ngaio Marsh, Barbara Pym, Dorothy Sayers, and MC Beaton, I would sit on the concrete floor, way in the back corner of […]

Let’s Get Silly!

Archie: Volume One by Fiona Staples et. al.

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I can’t even believe I’m reviewing this. I’m going to have to streeeeeetch my words out because what is there to say about Archie that hasn’t been said for decades? Archie is the star of Riverdale High. Girls love him. Guys want to be him. He plays the guitar and women swoon. He loves down-to-earth Betty but is swept up by the foxy Veronica. Jughead eats burgers. Reggie is a creep. What else is there to say? Nothing new, really, but the book Archie, Volume […]

A Modern Encyclopedia Brown

All the Wrong Questions: Question 1 by Lemony Snicket

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Dan Handler, writing as Lemony Snicket, wrote the A Series of Unfortunate Events books. I LOVED those books. They were brilliant—funny, smart, and not afraid to dig into hard topics like grief and death. So when I saw this new series, All the Wrong Questions: Question 1 (aka “Who Could that be at this Hour?”), I hopped right on it. The story features Snicket as a 13 year old boy who is roped into a mysterious mission to recover a stolen artifact. He is whisked […]

“A lifetime of lies that started out small, life a nick in the windshield, then eventually shattered the glass.”

The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson

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A book about lies that come from good intentions, the harm they can cause, and the power to overcome them, all in the context of living in America while Black. Plot: Ruth grew up in a poor factory Indiana town she couldn’t wait to get away from. When she won a full ride scholarship to Yale, she knew that was her way out. Then she got pregnant. The baby was given up for adoption and Ruth moved on. Now a chemical engineer and happily married […]

“You know life goes on after pain, and… well, it goes on before pain too, or around it, or generally proximate.”

The Stormbringer by Isabel Cooper

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I first heard about this book over on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, when they mocked the cover. They are, of course, entirely right. It is not only a generally not great cover, but it also completely fails to clue the reader into the smart, funny, inventive, sweet fantasy epic that they’re about to delve into. It’s described as a paranormal romance but if this is a paranormal romance so is Lord of the Rings and the Witcher. Plot: There is a war between humans and […]



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