Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Get Ready for Resolutions?

French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireillle Guiliano

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French Women Don’t Get Fat was first published in late 2004.  I had heard about it at the time (which was personally timely, more on that later), but paid it little mind sixteen years ago.  Life plodded on and while 2004 me was a single, scraping it together grad student, 2020 me  is a hard-working, exhausted, mother of two who, yes, is tipping the scales at more than my doctor says I should.  Did I go out looking for a “self-help” book?  No.  What actually […]

Pandemic Project Worthy Pies

Pieometry by Lauren Ko

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This is probably my last review of the year 2020, and I’m glad it’s a pretty good one. I should also note that this is a review of a cookbook that I have not made any recipes from yet. I plan to start tomorrow, but by that point it may be too late to review for this year. I have however read the whole thing, so I don’t feel too bad about that. One reason I want to review Pieometry for 2020 is that in […]

A first impression can often be misleading

Her Pretend Christmas Date by Jackie Lau

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Disclaimer! I was given an ARC of this book by the author. That has in no way influenced my review. Julie Tam’s sister Charlotte is an engineer and has an outgoing and charming boyfriend, the guy who lived next door when they were young. She is everything their parents could want. Meanwhile, Julie works as a waitress in a Cider Bar and designs her own jewelry. She goes on a blind date with Tom Yeung, which starts out badly and ends even worse. Tom is a […]

A slippery mystery

Banana Fox and the Secret Sour Society by James Kochalka

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A friend of mine knows the author (James Kochalka) of Banana Fox and the Secret Sour Society (book one of Banana Fox). Therefore, I thought I would give it a whirl. I knew we had different tastes, but it is always fun to try something new. You never know what you will find. Sadly, this book fell flat for me. The cliche theme of the Hero/World’s Greatest Detective being clueless, the less than convincing villain, and the “dumb fat kid” did nothing for me. The […]

Picture books are fun

Packs: Strength in Numbers by Hannah Salyer

Share Some Kindness, Bring Some Light by Apryl Stott

Macaroon Mouse the Christmas Eve Adventure by Nancy Brigham

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I cannot help myself. Picture books are fun. They are easy and help me think, “Well by George the III, I just accomplished something!” And these three books are ones that I accomplished. Packs: Strength in Numbers by Hannah Salyer (Rating 4) The book starts off with a simple poem like sentence about the connections of together; then BOOM! Sayler starts with examples of animals and their connections to the theme. By the end of our story, we go back to the simple line of […]

Did I mention the NOT cows????

Black Sand Beach V01: Are You Afraid of the Light? by Richard Fairgray

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Black Sand Beach V01: Are You Afraid of the Light? is a fun mystery in a traditional modern comic/graphic novel format. The spooky is spooky for the 10 to 14 crowd (slightly younger could do as well, but this is not for the overly sensitive reader as there are skeleton/zombie ghosts, a haunted lighthouse, odd looking characters who might have a live body in a bag, and um… not cows … wandering around).  But nothing is really over the top. Except, it is. There is no seriousness […]



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