Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

So, there used to be this thing called men….

Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal

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Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal is a graphic novel that I was thinking was going to be this uber feminist book that was all “yeah women, boo men!” And it is far from it. Okay, men don’t have the best of reputations, but they are not totally villainized. And except for Max (whomever he is), their sperm is still  here and useful (but we have figured out how to synthesize a way that women can be “sperm donors” or bone marrow donors). As one person […]

Zumrat Dawut

I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp by Zumrat Dawut and Anthony Del Col

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While I wanted more from I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp, this graphic novel is an interesting introduction to the people of  Xinjiang (an autonomous region in China) and how they have been treated by the Chinese government. Many women, among them  Zumrat Dawut, have been and are being persecuted because of their faith. Dawut is a Mulsim woman, a wife and a mother of three. She tells her story to Anthony Del Col and the United Nations Human Rights Council through interviews. There is […]

And you thought your job was soul sucking

Hunger's Bite by Taylor Robin

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I asked (texted) a friend the other day asking her, “Why do I find books almost a year before publication? Especially book one of a series?” She answered it was because I was in the early book business. Reader copies are machines to the future (publication of a book), but also they are the dynomite used to open the passages for the trains of reading in the first place. And if the found early book is a stinker, no problems. But when you find something […]

The might stand a ghost of a chance

All the Lovely Bad Ones Graphic Novel: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn

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All the Lovely Bad Ones Graphic Novel: A Ghost Story (novel by Mary Downing Hahn) and adapted by Scott Peterson, Naomi Franquiz, Brittany Peer and  Joamette Gil is probably my favorite of the novels by Hahn turned graphic novel. And their Wait Till Helen Comes was always a favorite book, so you’d think that adaptation would be my favorite, but there was something about this one that captured me. It probably was because Helen had been a favorite, and therefore, nothing lives up to it, […]

Couple of City Slickers in a John Wayne town

This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America by Navied Mahdavian

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Are you from CA and moved to The Middle of No Place? (Or from The City to The Country?) Did you try to live “off grid?” Did you mistake a coyote for a wolf? Do you think 2016 had the wrong person elected? If so, read this book, This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America by Navied Mahdavian. However,  if you think the right person was elected in 2016, keep walking. If you are looking for an interesting, but slightly self-centered, memoir, this […]

Mom and Me…

I Wish I Could Say "Thank You" by Yukari Takinami

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After reading GentleRain’s review of I Wish I Could Say “Thank You” by Yukari Takinami, I researched and found that while my bookstore could order me a copy, I decided that I would go the interlibrary loan route. I figured I could purchase a copy if I enjoyed it at a later time. And I probably will do that, but instead of keeping it for myself, I will donate it to my local library. I think others might be interested in this not easy to […]



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