Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Surprises sent in the email

Archie Celebrates an Indian Wedding by Mitali Banerjee Ruths

Sami's Special Gift by M O Yuksel

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I love getting good surprise emails about books. Recently Charlesbridge Publishing sent me a link with new titles. There were several that talked about cultures that are not usually ones we see or know about. I jumped on in, read the 17 that were in English (a few were in Spanish) and found  these below. I admit, I made some assumptions about Archie Celebrates an Indian Wedding. Which, actually, I’m glad I did. I was able to learn from that, and that one should not assume; […]

Possibly a little overkill on the biscuit variations

Still We Rise by Erika Council

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I live in the US South; I am aware that biscuits come in many styles and types, and that everyone’s granny had the best ever recipe.  A book about a bunch of different things you can do with biscuits makes sense. The one thing is though that there are about 60 pages of what’s nearly the exact same recipe, just switching out the fat (whole milk, sour cream, yogurt, duck fat, vegetable shortening, cream, lard, mayo). This section is basically repeating the recipe “2-ish cups […]

A cookbook wherein the cultural concerns over wording miss the measurement question

Chetna's Indian Feasts by Chetna Makan

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If I had access to fresh curry leaves (and I don’t live within 100 miles of anywhere that’s likely to have them), I might be tempted to try most everything in Chetna’s Indian Feasts. Even though she didn’t win her season of Great British Bake Off, the author seems to have done pretty well in setting herself up in the food world. I know she’s done several cookbooks before this one; I might be tracking down one or two of those. Indian Feasts is as […]

Gift a read

Joy to the World: A Christmas Song by Sara Gianassi

Silent Night: A Christmas Song by Sara Gianassi

The Last Slice: A Three Kings Day Treat by Melissa Seron Richardson

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If you like giving books for the holidays, these two board books illustrated by Sara Gianassi are adorable! They capture the more traditional feelings and ideals of the season, but also are just nice books. Perfect for stocking stuffers, these are practically must haves for everyone. They do include the full text (or at least a few verses) of each song (therefore a few lines might not be as familiar to some people) and have the sweetest images for illustrations. Okay, maybe too sweet for […]

Coffee, romance, and visions

Moonstruck, Vol. 1: Magic to Brew by Grace Ellis

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I was not “jumping up and down” over the graphic novel Moonstruck, Vol. 1: Magic to Brew, but it was interesting enough and I needed to keep moving through it. However, I either missed a panel or two, or some plot parts here and there, but the flow was not totally even, as there were a few bumps in continuity for me. However, there was the fun, colorful art (the bull character has really nice hair, the centaur is a hoot when they have something […]

The witch and werewolf go to school and some other things…but it’s not a romance

The Weirn Books, Vol. 1: Be Wary of the Silent Woods by Svetlana Chmakova

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Where do witches go to school? Well if you are the kids in this book, and are a special kind of witch called a Weirn, you go to the school the humans do. Only at night, after everyone has left and magic makes it morph into a school for the magical creatures. All the usual suspects are there in Svetlana Chmakova’s graphic novel, The Weirn Books, Vol. 1: Be Wary of the Silent Woods, the mean girl (who used to be a friend and has […]



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