Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The stories of two young men

Hands by Torrey Maldonado

Garvey in the Dark by Nikki Grimes

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I needed a short read or two. I found two, while terribly short looking, books that also felt like they would have some “meat” to them. And those books were Hands by Torrey Maldonado and Garvey in the Dark by Nikki Grimes. I was familiar with Grimes, as they are the author of Garvey’s Choice and others I enjoyed reading. But Maldonado was new. Hands looked like it would be a boxing book. And it is, somewhat. But really what the book is about are […]

2024 Alex Award title filled a Challenge slot

The Talk by Darrin Bell

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CBR16SweetChallenge #New (I think this was the first Alex Award I’ve read) The main thing I liked about the book, The Talk was that it goes through the history of author Darrin Bell. We see the events that would shape him. But with a few exceptions, these were mostly just “day to day” events. The Talk is “Just A Day in the Life of Bell.” We see his point of view while we get his explanations, and his feelings. We see his family through his […]

Slam poetry on the page

Composition by Junious Ward

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For full disclosure, I was about half way through this poetry collection when I started my review. I was not “feeling it” and put the book down. However, since then, I have read more. The poetry of Composition by Junious Ward is very subject focused and the style is mostly non-traditional with artistic language. Some poems are easy to read and understand as they are set in a traditional format, whereas others (such as the one that has been “blacked out” leaving only a few […]

Packed a punch with love

Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement by Sandra Neil Wallace

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One of the things that always gets to me is that the Civil Rights movement was not “ancient history” but “recent history.” In fact, so recent that Diane Nash of Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement is only 85 years old (in 2023). This means that she is only about 12 years older than my father. And while that is a bit of a gap when you are in your early teens and someone is in her 20’s, that still […]

If Casey rode a bicycle

Major Taylor: World Cycling Champion. by Charles R. Smith

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I had a few bikes in my day. I figured I was pretty good even as I fell off, had my dress caught in spokes stuff, ran into things. Oh yes, my athletics knew no boundaries of ineptitude. Of course, there was this young man in the 1800s who would have given me a ride for my money. His name was Major Taylor: World Cycling Champion. And I guess he was good. He won a few races (starting at age 13) and would fight racism, […]

More than the black-veiled image at her husbands funeral

Coretta’s Journey: The Life and Times of Corretta Scott King by Alice Faye Duncan

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I knew a little bit about Coretta Scott King’s story, but mostly how it related to her husband Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And when I saw Coretta’s Journey: The Life and Times of Coretta Scott King I was wondering how much her life would be shaped by her husbands? How much would there be about her and not just “oh she was this really famous guy’s wife and mother of his children?” Well, there is a lot about her. More than I really would have […]



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