Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Don’t stop beginning. Begin and begin and begin. Begin endlessly—that is, without the taint of even eventual ending.”

All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess by Becca Rothfeld

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Literary critic Becca Rothfeld argues against the modern inclination toward minimalism, and insteads advocates embracing all the messy and irrepressible things that make the human existence so rewarding. I am this book’s target audience, because like Rothfeld I wonder if in the process of streamlining our world we have reached an unpleasantly bland and bloodless zeitgeist. I enjoy colorful and unusual clothes and furniture. I find the aesthetic of minimalism boring. I love the over the top pulp literature of yesteryears. I don’t want the […]

See the colors

The Sky Is Not Blue by Joy Jones

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The use of color has been used before as a theme, but to show that there are colors that are in-between the stereotypical ones is fresh. The Sky Is Not Blue is a cute, simple story that allows us to see that not only are we using our imagination, we are using it in real-life situations. It shows the power of art, color and looking at things a little differently (even if that means sitting in the little chair and not the big teacher chair). […]

Animal Book Round Up Time

The Knight Owl #2 Knight Owl and Early Bird by Christopher  Denise

The Boy and the Elephant by Freya Blackwood

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It is Animal Book Round Up Time! Both books were read via an online reader copy.  The Knight Owl #2 Knight Owl and Early Bird is the second Knight Owl book by Christopher  Denise. (Though you must wait until mid October 2024 for it to be available.) We now have a young early bird who wants to be a Knight Owl as well, but of course, things do not work out as well as they would have liked. After all they are not an owl, […]

How could one ever capture a star?

The Muse of Maiden Lane by Mimi Matthews

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CBR16 Bingo: Celestial – Teddy paints Stella as Electra, one of the Pleiades of Greek mythology – the daughters of the Titan Atlas who were transformed into stars by Zeus. Grey-haired Stella is the only one of her friends still unwed, and does not expect to marry soon either. But between her new acquaintance with aspiring artist Teddy and the pressure from her brother’s impending marriage, Stella finds that her path may not be what she always envisioned. After a whirlwind read of the previous three […]

Finding wings

Bird by Kristin Rosetta Elliott Hood

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Through the site that I get most of my online readers, I found several older titles. And by older I mean as far back as even 2002. The publisher was reissuing a few things I was assuming, but that is always fun as you never know what you will find. One of those books, that I almost did not read, was Bird by Kristin Rosetta Elliott Hood and illustrated by Shadra Strickland. This was one from 2017. This book was at first something that seemed […]

Dale Chihuly, the Man, the Myth, the Artist

A Flash of Color and Light: A Biography of Dale Chihuly by Sharon Menyka

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The five for A Flash of Color and Light: A Biography of Dale Chihuly is not because it is the best book ever (though it does come close) but how unique it is. The art of glassblowing is probably one of these least known arts (or in my unscientific opinion). And especially unknown to most kids.  Sharon Menyka delicately brings to life that of Dale Chihuly. He had tragedy in his life (the death of his older brother and father; a car accident that took […]



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