Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This book didn’t have an index

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

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Bingo Row 5 – work The Library Book by Susan Orlean is “about” the 1986 fire at the LA central library. The actual fire wasn’t the point of the book so much as the excuse for it. It was really about the Los Angeles library, libraries in general, and mostly about librarians doing their job. The book covered librarians ranging from superheroes to self-centered jerks, with a range of gender and competency, but all of them care about libraries and they all care about their […]

“Kids do well when they can.”

The Explosive Child by Ross W. Greene

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Cannonball Read Bingo: Family “Behaviorally challenging kids are challenging because they’re lacking the skills to not be challenging.” This book is geared toward parents of “explosive” children: the kids whose emotional outbursts and out-of-control behaviors are becoming exhausting and overwhelming to everyone in the house. Greene suggests that these problems are caused by “lagging skills” and “unsolved problems,” not by the kid’s desire to be difficult. He then lays out a model that helps parents guide their children in developing these lagging skills and understand […]

Her voice

Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open: Poems by Diane Seuss

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A friend of mine who is also a writer, poet, editor and constant learner recommended the poet Diane Seuss. Of course, my kid self said, SEUSS? Well that’s a hoot. And I am sure she is tired of people asking and/or joking about it, so I’ll just leave that there and talk about Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open: Poems (Juniper Prize for Poetry) instead.  And I’m not really sure what to say about things. It has a unique modern voice with obvious classical influences, […]

Do they like Ray Charles, Elton John or Liberace?

The Elephant and the Piano by Colette Hiller

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As 2025 winds down, I am finding more online reader copies for 2026. And not just for January or February. No, I’ve seen as late as July 2026. Thankfully The Elephant and the Piano is an early one as it’s due in May 2026. Until then (when I will be finding finished copies for gifts and the library), I will just read Colette Hiller’s book online. This book is based on actual events (but takes some poetic license) of how one man decided to help […]

Read This Book Before It’s Banned

Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News by Alec Karakatsanis

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“Police leaders do not want to talk about the everyday brutality of the punishment bureaucracy. Condemning [Derek] Chauvin as a ‘bad apple’ is a safer tactic. But it is not ‘bad apple’ police officers who make 10.6 million arrests every year and who, since 1980, have helped quintuple the rate of incarceration in the U.S. from its historical average. It is not ‘bad apple’ police offers who purchase tanks and grenade launchers for themselves or who enforce cash bail. It is not ‘bad apple’ officers […]

A piece of the story

Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout

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To be honest, I have a lot of books that get misplaced. I put them in safe places and well, they are so safe even I can’t find them. But there is always a way to find them. And with Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout that way was the library and interlibrary loan.  A powerful and beautifully done story of family and the horrors of war unfolds across the pages. As it is told via a blackbird, things at times become almost […]



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