Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A true test of compatibility

A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst

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I’ve found a number of interesting books when I need a new audio book by just seeing what is “available now” at my library, sorted by popularity. Is that how I found A Marriage at Sea (2025) by Sophie Elmhirst? Honestly, now I can’t remember. I may have seen it on a list somewhere. Also, now that I’ve read it, I’m seeing this book everywhere, including NPR and NYT’s 2025 lists. Spoilers follow. A Marriage at Sea is the true story of a couple, Maralyn and Maurice, who […]

Bad-a$$ gals

The Girl Who Changed Little League: The True Story of Maria Pepe and Her Battle to Play Ball. by Maria Pepe with Jean L. S. Patrick

Sparrow Loves Reptiles by Murry Burgess and Tamisha Anthony

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Girls are bad-a$$ in ways they might not know. And Maria Pepe did not really know it, she just knew she wanted to play Little League. But the powers that be said girls can’t play. Yet, Maria was not going to let herself be stopped. And Pepe with Jean L. S. Patrick showed how this could be done in The Girl Who Changed Little League: The True Story of Maria Pepe and Her Battle to Play Ball. The story is simple: Girl loves baseball. Girl […]

Late to the party, but still treats

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

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I came late to the Carrie Fisher as an author party.  I knew she had written certain ones, forgotten she’d written other ones, but never read anything. Plus, I only had a small inkling of wanting to read anything (mostly right after she passed). But then I found The Princess Diarist. Thinking it was the last memoir she wrote, I figured it was as good as any other to start with. Afterall, why not do the most recent one? It would have the most updated […]

Silent music for peace

Music and Silence: The Passion and Protest of Pablo Casals by Christy Mihaly

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Music and Silence: The Passion and Protest of Pablo Casals is just a WOW book. It is beautifully written, beautifully illustrated and beautifully presented.  Christy Mihaly and illustrator Mariona Cabassa made this (due mid/later April 2026) book about a person and story I do not think I had ever heard of before. It is more emotional than an action story, but there are events that have the action, too. We see how the power of music can try and topple governments. We see how one […]

Music puzzle

Piece by Piece: How Stephen Sondheim Made Musical Puzzles Come Alive by Erin Frankel

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Picture books. Love them or hate them they are a genre that has expanded my knowledge over the years. I have learned about volcanoes, bats, famous artistic nuns, poems and more. And Piece by Piece: How Stephen Sondheim Made Musical Puzzles Come Alive by Erin Frankel and illustrator Stacy Innerst added to it with a poetic look at Stephen Sondheim and his works. While not a “pure biography” of the composer, the highlights of his work and life are addressed. Things are whimsical and a […]

Sixty-six million years ago or Ya know the other day

One Cosmic Rock: The Story of the Asteroid that Changed Our World by Julia Vasileva

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Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid hurtled through space toward an ancient Earth that looked very different from the one we know today. And in One Cosmic Rock: The Story of the Asteroid that Changed Our World by Karen Krossing we see how that came to be in poetic language for the picture book crowd.   Good for ages five and up, this book is a simple, but involved, non-fiction story that has interesting illustrations by Julia Vasileva. They are neither realistic or abstract, but a […]



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