Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

10 Reasons to Get Out of Bed in the Morning

Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon

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Within two minutes of waking up, I remember things I’d rather not: raging wildfires, hurricanes, desperate refugees, white nationalists, dead gray whales washing up onshore. Keep Going is a gift, an emotional stain remover, the pep talk  I didn’t know I needed in order to tamp down my despair and resume making art. Kleon knows the struggle is real. (Good luck staying loose and open when the outside world is invading every level of your consciousness!) Here is a person who shows his work on […]

“The Mad Scene. Enter Ophelia!”

Ophelia by Charlotte Gingras

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The only way I can describe this book is: I absolutely hated everything about it AND loved it. Charlotte Gingras brings out emotions of love, hate, disgust and so much more in this translation (by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou) of her book, Ophelia. Sometimes I was rooting for Ophelia and other times I just wanted to smack her. Hard. I felt for her and the difficulties she was going through. I felt she was the most selfish creature on the face of the planet. […]

Gorgeous graphic novel with a dragon, a maiden, a warrior, and kites.

The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen (author), Rebecca Guay (art)

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 The Last Dragon is a beautiful book to hold.  Colors are muted and layered, nothing is a single flat shade.  Lighting has been carefully considered, illuminating and glowing as needed each panel.  The “maiden” is an herbalist’s daughter named, Tansy.  She is described as, “no color at all.  She seemed to blend in with her surroundings” and the artist, Rebecca Guay, did an incredible job showing this.  I also love the way Guay drew the dragon, so powerful and ferocious.  It reminds me of a […]

When Princess Leia and 45 White Men inspire you to write an art book.

Limitless: 24 Remarkable American Women of Vision, Grit and Guts by Leah Tinari

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Limitless: 24 Remarkable American Women of Vision, Grit and Guts by Leah Tinari is one of those books that I want to give a score of 100 to, but at the same time, a score of zero. There is a lot going on in these handful of pages. The high score is because Tinari has picked several women that I have never heard of. And, would almost guarantee the “average” person has not either. Yet, each woman has had a powerful impact on the world […]

Poetry that is beautiful

Thrall by Natasha Trethewey

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If you like poetry, you should read Natasha Trethewey. These poems are, on one hand, about her relationship to her father, and, on the other hand, the position that black people have been too often placed in by white people. Thrall is an interesting word choice because it means being in someone’s power. There is the power that family holds over us. There is the hold that the art that inspired some of these poems had on Trethewey. There is the sense of ownership that […]

Trolls, Trolls, and More Trolls

In The Troll Wood by John Bauer

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  I have loved John Bauer since I lived in Sweden for six months when I was a kid. My parents give a collection of fairy tales illustrated by him. There is something about his trolls and his use of light and shadow. This picture presents Bauer’s artwork with short little narratives about trolls. There is what happens when a Friar tries to exile trolls from a forest. There is a princess who is captured by trolls but is able to save herself. There is […]



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