Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About BlackRaven

CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR14 Bingo Badges
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR17 Comments
CBR17 Levels

I am a Professional Book Pusher. Reading is a passion, as is writing, bragging about nephews, and alligator wrestling. My first year participating was 2018. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: BlackRaven's Quick Questions interview.)

BlackRaven's Reviews:

Freshly squished (from frozen)

The Lemonade War Book 1 by Jacqueline Davies

by Leave a Comment

While reading The Lemonade War Book 1 by Jacqueline Davies I did not think I would write it up here. It came out in the early 2000s. How could it still be relevant? Wouldn’t everyone have already read it? Therefore, I didn’t make arrangements to post. Then I was sitting at my work desk (a few days after finishing) and it had been mixing itself inside me, like mixing bugs and lemonade. Or: it was not sitting right. Why not talk about an almost 25 […]

Take a trip to the market

by Leave a Comment

Mari and the Great Market Swap came up on my online reader site. It had a nice cover. It was bright, interesting, but was not saying READ ME NOW. I thought about it. I went to do other things. I read other things. The next day I said, “Well, it’s still there. Might as well give Janelle Springer-Willms’s book a go.” And I did. Now, while it might not be a WOW read, it is a strong cozy read. It did not shock or blow […]

A beat-up book that made me think people need this book

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness. by Kristen Radtke

by Leave a Comment

If you want to feel really bad about yourself, read Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness. Or, just as likely, if you want to feel great about yourself, read this graphic novel by Kristen Radtke. There are some contradictions, some places you will see yourself and see friends and/or family. It is slow reading, but busy. The book’s theme is, as the title says, about loneliness. Radtke talks about how it has its has ups and downs, in an almost poetic fashion with both […]

So, I took this book with to a Dr appointment to read in the waiting room…

Notes from a Sickbed by Tessa Brunton

by Leave a Comment

During a long weekend (I had to take a Monday off for a doctor’s appointment) I read two memoirs and one non-fiction graphic novel on loneliness (which I had been working on for weeks).  I started Notes from a Sickbed by Tessa Brunton before I went to my doctor’s appointment and brought it with me. The considerate person in me felt it was probably not the most appropriate read to read there, but the smarty pants in me was laughing my pants off at the […]

Journey to heal

Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting by Kindra Neely

by Leave a Comment

Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting by Kindra Neely is a book I will not tell you about how I felt about it as it had moments that I felt were stronger than others, but others were not as strong as they could have been. But that is just my opinion. Whatever your own experiences are will make this book what it is about. The illustrations are bold, simpler, and colorful. Triggers: suicidal thoughts, attempted suicide, school and mass shootings, some Islamophobia, mental […]

In a distant country, war is affecting Theo in his safe home

Planting Sunshine by Andrée Poulin

by Leave a Comment

From the moment I saw the cover of Planting Sunshine (due Feb 2026, read via an online reader) it had really gotten under my skin. At first, I loved it; then I didn’t; then I felt it and hoped I would like the story beyond it. For sure this image gives one an emotional response. And to say that Andrée Poulin’s text also gives an emotional response, is an understatement. They combine poetry, graphic novel formats and novels, with contemporary events. The “Why” of a […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo