Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Thoughts of Home

The Flavors of Iraq: Impressions of My Vanished Homeland by Feurat Alani and Léonard Cohen

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The old “I was looking at my saved online reader links” comes into play with how I found The Flavors of Iraq: Impressions of My Vanished Homeland by Feurat Alani and Léonard Cohen.  I saw that it was the only one in that email (how I save the links) and figured it was a sign to read it. From May 2024, the history I grew up with comes back into play. However, instead of seeing it from an American or Western point of view, we […]

Finding happy little trees, mountains to climb and burglars to show who is the boss babe

The Swayze Year: You're Not Old, You're Just Getting Started! by Colleen AF Venable and Meghan Daly

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You are never too old to try something new, or to follow your passion. Even if that means you are in your 70s and you want to fly around the world. Even if that means you want to invent ramen noodles as we know them today. Even if you want to paint and are unhoused. Even if you want to write the classic dictionary or thesaurus.  Even if you are over the so-called, “Productive Years.” In The Swayze Year: You’re Not Old, You’re Just Getting […]

Not for me

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

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The Fraud (2023) by Zadie Smith was on many “best of” lists last year. I’d already read On Beauty by Smith, which I really enjoyed. I was hoping for more of the same with The Fraud. Unfortunately for me, I had a hard time getting into this one. I felt like Smith was intentionally writing a book that was difficult to follow, and if you didn’t have a strong knowledge of English history, then you were missing out. This was a bit of a slog […]

All of them

Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary and Gender-Diverse People You Should Know by Em Dickson and Cameron Mukwa

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Either the celebrities are getting younger, or I’m getting older (I’m assuming the former, as I’m certainly not getting older….).  Joking aside, the first few sections of Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary and Gender-Diverse People You Should Know focuses on young people born in the 1990s mostly, so I was a bit surprised how young the people were. Then again, we are just starting to have nonbinary and/or trans people in literature and/or mainstream, making the pioneers younger. And Em Dickson and Cameron Mukwa proudly […]

My Name Is Brave

My Name Is Brave: LGBTQIA+ by William Anthony

My Name Is Brave: The Environment by William Anthony

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My Name Is Brave: LGBTQIA+  by William Anthony (due January 2025) is a nice book and a good introduction on LGBT+ issues, but it has been done before. You could find this information in almost any book on the subject. However, the addition of showing how the reader can partake in helping this or another cause they need to be brave for, is good.  The mixture of photographs and drawing bring to life a handful of advocates. In a few pages each we see a transgender […]

A stone is a journey across history

A Stone Is a Story by Leslie Barnard Booth

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A Stone Is a Story by Leslie Barnard Booth and Marc Martin is a picture book about how a “stone” is formed. But it is not done with dry facts, but with a more poetic nature. We follow from before time (almost) to today and “you” the reader finding a piece of that original item.  I did not find things WOW, but I did find them enjoyable. If you are looking for a factual book, this does have that at the end, but within the […]



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