Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Boy: Part Two

The Boy From Clearwater: Book Two by Yu Pei-Yun, Jian-Xin Zhou and Lin King

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About a month or so ago I read The Boy From Clearwater: Book One by Yu Pei-Yun, Jian-Xin Zhou and Lin King (Translator). At the time I didn’t think I would go onto book two, The Boy From Clearwater: Book Two, but something said I should and located an interlibrary loan copy from my local library.  Usually sequels are not as strong as the first book, but while I feel the first book was stronger in many aspects, this second book has strong pieces of […]

You Can Call Him Al

Sonny Boy: A Memoir by Al Pacino

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I’m not a huge reader of celebrity memoirs, but when I saw Al Pacino’s was available on Spotify Premium, the idea of listening to him narrate his life appealed to me. I wouldn’t say Pacino is a particular favorite of mine, but he’s obviously been in some incredible movies over the years. Though celebrities vary widely in how perceptive they are about their own lives, one of the more interesting aspects of reading their own thoughts about their careers is that you get a sense […]

Just a couple of moms and their talking cats

Urban Tails by Ilana Zeffren

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I first found Urban Tails by Ilana Zeffren as an online reader copy, though the book has been available since May 2022. I was having trouble reading it online due to the illustrations. The text bled into the images. The colors were dull and this made things feel unfinished overall. The story wasn’t engaging me. But there was something about it that made me want to read it. I knew there was something there. Perhaps it was because it was about Israel. Or because there […]

A long review with a lot of thoughts

Transitions: A Mother's Journey by Elodie Durand

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I used to book mentor a kid that came to my store. He was smart, but mentally and physically young. One day I learned he wanted to go by “James” not “Jamie” anymore. Why? You see, his neighbor “Bob” left one day and when he came back, she was “Jamie” and (hopefully) she was happy. Now, since “James” was a kid, it is expected that he wouldn’t understand this. After all, transgendered people were not in the mainstream as they would be even a few […]

Nostalgia

Amla Mater by Devi Menon

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Even though I have trouble reading online, I am finding even my longer reads there. Such as Amla Mater by Devi Menon. It is less than 200 pages, and therefore more of a novella graphic novel, but what I mean by longer is not a picture book. Actually picture books can be relatively easy to read online (unless they have a smaller print, a lot of print or illustrations that need the book to be turned to read), but when I do my young adult […]

Murder in the Philippines

Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista

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Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in my Country (2023) by Patricia Evangelista was another Barack Obama recommendation. It is a non-fiction account of Rodrigo Duterte and his “war on drugs” that killed thousands of innocent people when he was President of the Philippines from 2016-2022. Patricia Evangelista is a journalist from the Philippines who personally investigated and reported on many of these extrajudicial killings that were attributed to Duterte and his regime. I knew (and still know) very little about the Philippines, although […]



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