Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

An elephant never forgets. Until she does

Never Forget Eleanor by Jason June

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CBR15Passport new to me author (though I had heard the name Jason June, I realized, I have never actually read them!)   Jason June you are a mean, person! How could you pull on my heartstrings with your lovely story of a grandmother elephant and her grandson elephant going through a difficult situation? Why did you make me cry? Of course, you Loren Long, I blame, too!  Those sweet, illustrations of adorable elephant ears and big eyes looking up at his grandmother while they do […]

Two boys, one city, and their places in it

Moonwalking by Zetta Elliott and Lyn Miller-Lachmann

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Moonwalking is an interesting story about friendship in early 1980s America. The characters are both likable and relatable, and the (SPOILER) not so happy ending, is a nice change of pace from having it “all be okay” and working out in the best possible outcome.  The tone mostly feels realistic (though I am not sure (SPOILER) if Pie sending his address to JJ would have happened). The supporting cast could have been explored a bit more, but what is needed to promote and support the […]

Glow baby, glow

Phosphorescence by Julia Baird

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If you’re to Google this book, you’ll note that it is the winner of the Australian Book Industry BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD (emphasis not added, this just seems to be an award that comes with CAPITAL LETTERS). You’ll read that it is about ‘awe, wonder, and things that sustain us’. If you access the audiobook version, as I did, you’ll experience hours of Baird’s breathless, softly spoken and earnest voice in your ears. You’ll hear her talk of surviving cancer, and relationship breakdowns. She […]

Remarkable author and their remarkable series and the remarkable new one

Remarkably Ruby (Emmie & Friends, #6) by Terri Libenson

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Remarkably Ruby (Emmie & Friends, #6) by Terri Libenson continues the characters we have grown to love in the other Emmie & Friends graphic novels. But this time we take a character we have only seen as a running joke (literally as she is usually running to the bathroom) and one I do not remember seeing. Having these two characters who are the narrators not featured in other books was nice. You see the established world of this middle school environment in a new light. And […]

The stories might be appropriate, but the company is not

Lucky Girl: How I Became a Horror Writer: A Krampus Story by M. Rickert

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If you ring the bell, remember it cannot be undone. And when that happens, the monsters come out to play. But of course, they do not play by any rules known to man or woman. But one thing is for certain, the monsters come, and they can find each other and you. One Thanksgiving five strangers meet up in a diner that will be closing its doors forever soon. Ro, narrator of and the title girl in Lucky Girl: How I Became a Horror Writer: […]

Pura Satis

How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis

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Someone on Pajiba recommended How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis and when I looked it up I saw a lovely YouTube video by the author that was so warm and smart and inclusive that I immediately put the book on hold with my library system. Truth be told I have become an unabashedly mediocre housekeeper over the years and share that task pretty equally with my husband and teenage daughter. Our family motto is “Pura Satis” which my cousin, who has a Masters degree in […]



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