Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Go Crazy? Don’t Mind if I Do

The Shining by Stephen King

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I haven’t actually seen Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of The Shining, but it’s a testament to that film’s iconic status that even I couldn’t help but notice how different the original novel is from the movie. Without trying to spoil anything, there’s no cascade of blood coming out of an elevator and no creepy set of ghost twins either. There is, however, one hell of a dynamite premise, for either a book or a movie. For the few of you who might need an introduction: […]

Lovely Description of Growing Up

Calling My Name by Liara Tamani

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Apparently, today is my day to review “books about things that are hard to describe”! You know what is really hard to describe? Growing up. There are SO MANY books about it but not enough of them really describe the emotional states of going from a younger child to a preteen to a teen. Calling My Name does it beautifully: lyrical writing in short chapters, little vignettes sharing moments of a life. The book makes you root for and care deeply about Taja right away, […]

Right there with ya

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

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So after the sarcasm fire of my last review, I need to applaud that this book ostensibly written for young adults had a more realistic picture of romantic relationships than The Glass Ocean – a more “literary” historical fiction – did. Our hero Cath develops relationships that are more complex than “buhh I luhh him,” in ways that are recognizable to actual humans. (Can not stand books that insist that a character loves another without showing the reader why they are. Beauty is not a […]

Love em and leave em until one dies

The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell

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Adrian’s third wife, Maya, dies by accident one night. She was wasted and fell into the path of a bus. While her death seems accidental, the fact she was uncharacteristically drunk at the time sticks in Adrian’s mind. About a year of mourning later, he decides that he must find a new owner for the cat Maya left behind and places ads around town. A mysterious woman shows up a couple times to meet the cat but ends up not taking the cat. Then the […]

CBR11 #4: Pretending to Care

The Pretenders (Cemetery Girl #1) by Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden

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I wanted to like this, but…I just didn’t. I don’t know if it was too short, or whether it would have more appeal for a YA audience, but I was just kind of bored. Calexa Rose finds herself dumped in a graveyard, with no memory of her identity, and only the knowledge that someone tried to kill her. She can also see ghosts. She makes herself at home in the cemetery, trying to hide out from whomever tried to kill her, while attempting to find […]

I’d like to be/under the sea

The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden

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Zoey doesn’t have time to finish her schoolwork. It’s not that she doesn’t care – she does. It’s not that she isn’t smart – she is. But being responsible for the care of her three preschool siblings while mom’s working means she doesn’t have time for things that other kids have time for.  It would be easier for Zoey, she thinks, if she was an octopus. Eight legs to juggle her siblings and help around the house. The ability to camouflage when her teacher eyes […]



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