Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

An extraordinary friendship (cannonball!)

The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien by John Hendrix

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The Mythmakers is a graphic story written for middle schoolers and older. The narrators of this biography/history are a lion (CS Lewis) and a Wizard (JRR Tolkien). The Mythmakers covers the life stories of each man in brief as well as going into detail on their ideas about storytelling and myths. Lewis and Tolkien shared some remarkable things in common but clearly they were two very different men whose friendship inspired them to write their greatest works. Yet their differences (other relationships, perhaps jealousy, differences […]

Kind of a Miserable Home, Actually

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

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Alison Bechdel is perhaps best known for the Bechdel Test, a measure of representation of women in media. (For those who don’t know, the test asks whether a particular work features more than one woman, whether those women have a conversation with one another, and whether that conversation centers around a topic other than a man.) But Alison Bechdel is also a cartoonist who created a long-running cartoon strip and two graphic novel memoirs. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic was her first graphic memoir, and […]

Funny, Charming, and Bittersweet

Nimona by ND Stevenson

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I’m so glad I’ve started getting more into graphic novels because Nimona, by transmasculine author ND Stevenson, is excellent. Titular character Nimona arrives at the lair of Ballister Blackheart to announce (not ask) that she’s his new sidekick. While he is initially inclined to reject this proposal, he changes his mind upon discovering that she is a shapeshifter. Ballister is a supervillain with a strong moral code who doesn’t want to kill anyone, especially innocent people. Nimona has no such compunction, and it’s entertaining to […]

“What would happen if we spoke the truth?”

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

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CBR 16 Bingo – Pride: LGBTQ+ author “I’d been upstaged, demoted from protagonist in my own drama to comic relief in my parents’ tragedy” I read this book for my book club in June, for pride month, since we try to plan our books in acordance to the different heritage months. We also try to have diversity in the types of books we choose, and we hadn’t had a graphic novel yet this year, so we ended up settling on Fun Home as our book. […]

The sibling bond

The Firelight Apprentice by Bree Paulsen

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Due to the rushed ending, The Firelight Apprentice by Bree Paulsen is a 3.5 and not a 4. However, it is Paulsen and I like the books  I have read out of three I know they have written and illustrated.  The first was Garlic and the Vampire, and the second is The Firelight Apprentice. I have Garlic and the Witch waiting for me. (And to get it out of the way, all graphic novels are now currently available but I read this via an online […]

“Actually though, uh…. I do need to use the bathroom after all.” 

Orchard of the Tame by Marlo Meekins

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The title of my review of Orchard of the Tame by Marlo Meekins and Nick Cross is that line from the book because it is funny and a counter to the rest of the book. There are several good one-liners here and there, but overall, the story is dark. Even sometimes physically, as the illustrations are all black with just some white spots. Or this could be because it was an online reader copy (by the time I publish this review, it should be available). […]



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