Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About BlackRaven

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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:

Life of a Poet: June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000

A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks by Alice Faye Duncan

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A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks by Alice Faye Duncan is probably my favorite read of 2019 so far. Not only do you get a woman of color presented, you get one who might not be familiar to everyone. She is a poet I knew about but not familiar with. And unlike say, Maya Angelou, there does not seem to be a lot out there about her and especially not for the younger crowd. Therefore, this is a pleasant addition to the biographies of both black […]

Nature of happiness

The Fox on the Swing by Evelina Daciute

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The Fox on the Swing was created by Evelina Daciute and Ausra Kiudulaite. This creation of theirs has made the award scene say it has something about it that earned it the 2019 Batchelder Award. This winner, originally published in Lithuanian as “Laime Yra Lape,” is obviously not a book that was written in English first.  You can feel the non-Western flow to the writing style. There is an obvious feeling of a translation, but everything does work as the translation was not choppy as […]

Days of Our Trying Not to Get Humanity Blown into Smithereens

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

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By the time I was not even halfway through Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente I thought, “This is one screwed up book.” As one reviewer on Amazon put it, “it is a barrage of fluff” (more later). It is all these strung together words just to put words together. They are not run-on sentences but run-off-the-page-turn-left-at-the-corner-and-keep-going-on sentences. The story, once you get into it, is easy enough to understand: a has been singer (as one of my coworkers put it, “a Meatloaf like performer” […]

Some day your prince will come and he just might be a slobbery monster

Snow Pony by Christian Trimmer

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When you have high hopes for a book and it shatters your heart like your Grandmother’s Depression Glass, you are in bad shape. And yes, that is hyperbole, yet this whole book seems to be that extremeness of trying to be clever and only getting part way there. We know the story of the “Pretty Pony” and the “Not nice Pony” and we know the fact that there is a favorite girl who comes to see the Pretty Pony and one who is less than […]

When your neighbor is unbearably grumpy

The Snow Rabbit by Georgiana Deutsch

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The story of The Snow Rabbit is predictable. One grumpy bear and one small rabbit determined to make the bear not grumpy. A show of friendship by the rabbit that takes an odd turn. And finally, friendship between the bear and other animals of the neighborhood. Yet, there is nothing wrong with that. It is still a cute story about the important subject of making friends, despite there is little new in Georgiana Deutsch’s story. As I said, it is predictable as we have seen […]

Let it snow, let it snow!

I Wish it Would Snow. by Sarah Dillard

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Sadly, I did not like the book, I Wish it Would Snow. The only thing that saved it for me was Sarah Dillard’s illustrations. They are sweet and there are some details, but they are not overwhelming. The colors are bold and bright. They do help move the story along. At first, I thought this would be a wordless-picture book, but then it started up with sparse text. And continued with the sparse text. However, the story is realistic. The fact that the child/narrator of […]



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