Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Leedock

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Disney World lover. Chewbacca hugger. Reader of books. Writer of words. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Leedock's Quick Questions interview.)

Leedock's Reviews:

Trees don’t wonder about things. They just grow.

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

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I had been holding off on reading this book because it’s the last of Walls’ books for me. I read both her memoir (Glass Houses) and “true-life novel” about her grandmother (Half Broke Horses) and loved them. Each deals with whip-smart children growing up, rather than being raised, in households where the adults are too preoccupied with their own needs. I normally don’t read book jackets to avoid spoiler-y details but there is a terrific quote in this one that completely sums up this author: […]

This state, this place, is like no other.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

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CBR11 BINGO: Far and Away (BINGO! Remix square to Reading the TBR square) This book has been repeatedly recommended to me via various online trickery. On the surface it seems like something that I would like: a book set in the wilds of Alaska. I dig nature. I like reading books where the pioneer spirit triumphs against all odds because I would die 3 days into that sort of thing and because I was borderline obsessed with Holly Hobbie and Little House on the Prairie when I was little. […]

It’s about being the flipper, not the pinball.

Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks

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CBR11 BINGO: Youth I LOVE Rainbow Rowell. I don’t think that any other writer captures what it feels like to fall in love the first time like she does. Her books are engaging, sometimes desperately bittersweet and always honest. While I am not so patiently waiting for “Wayward Son” to be available, I snatched up her brand new graphic novel to tide me over. It’s also the first day of Fall, so this seems fitting. Deja and Josie have been working at the local pumpkin […]

I am named after my mother’s unhappiness.

Evvie Drakes Starts Over by Linda Holmes

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CBR11 BINGO: PAJIBA BINGO! (Remix Corner to Cannonballer Says Corner) I think it’s often easy to overlook books that, on the surface, seem like easy reads or the reading equivalent of a rom-com movie. Books that get characterized as “beach reads” or “kissing books” are easily pigeonholed as entertaining romances devoid of any gravitas. I know there is a strong contingent of Cannonballers who are devout romance readers, so I’m probably preaching to the choir here. You can’t always judge a book by it’s cover, right? Not that […]

We will do what others expect of us.

The Other Wes Moore: One Name Two Fates by Wes Moore

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CBR11 BINGO: True Story The premise of this book is interesting. How can two people, born a year apart in the same neighborhood turn out differently? At what point could the path split to lead to a successful and happy life for one and life in prison for the other? What happened along the way and can something be learned from that? As author Wes Moore is awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, a man hunt is underway to arrest suspects wanted in […]

…when we were infinite.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

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CBR11 BINGO: Banned Books This is a frequent flyer on the Office for Intellectual Freedom Top 10 Most Challenged Books list (2004, 2006-2009, 2013, 2014). The tragedy is that the books that often speak frankly and clearly about real issues of growing up and learning how to navigate in the world are frequently found so threatening. It’s as if the books are instructional manuals for bad behavior rather than stories that can offer hope, validation and solace. “Charlie” begins writing a series of letters to […]



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