Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Therapy is like a toothbrush. You can’t really put it to use for anybody but yourself”

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

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#CBR11 Bingo: Reader’s Choice (in place of Back to School) (would also work for a Pajiba or Listicle square, as well as Summer Read) Eveleth “Evvie” (rhymes with ‘chevy’) Drake has packed the car and is about to leave her husband when she gets a phone call that he’s been in a car accident. Before she can make it to the hospital, he is dead. About a year later, everyone thinks Evvie has kept to herself, isolated in her big house, because she’s overcome with grief. She […]

Baseball In Japan

You Gotta Have WA by Robert Whiting

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Growing up a big baseball fan, I always knew the sport was popular in Japan. I also always knew it was played differently but I didn’t know why. Not necessarily played differently rules-wise (though there is some of that, like ties for example), but culturally, there were different expectations of the players and the clubs. Robert Whiting smoothly lays the differences out in this book. I worry sometimes that westerners don’t always have a sensitivity to the nuanced differences in respective eastern cultures but he […]

Much better than the cover made me expect

Whatever Life Throws at You by Julie Cross

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From Goodreads: Seventeen-year-old Annie Lucas’s life is completely upended the moment her dad returns to the major leagues as the new pitching coach for the Kansas City Royals. Now she’s living in Missouri (too cold), attending an all-girls school (no boys), and navigating the strange world of professional sports. But Annie has dreams of her own—most of which involve placing first at every track meet…and one starring the Royals’ super-hot rookie pitcher. But nineteen-year-old Jason Brody is completely, utterly, and totally off-limits. Besides, her dad […]

The crack of the bat, the stench of popcorn, the cheers of the fans!

Fuzzy Baseball Volume 1 by John Steven Gurney

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I learned about Fuzzy Baseball when a Facebook friend of a friend of mine turned out to be the author of the series. John Steven Gurney also commented on the fact I was planning on picking it up by saying he was in talks with our events person to come to the store. Therefore, of course, I had to read this book about baseball. Ah! Baseball! The game with the sticks and hats and balls! That pastime that we sing about. The one that has hard bleachers, […]

Like a Sports Movie, In Reverse

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

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Football is the quintessential American sport. Two disciplined armies meet out on an open field. Highly trained men in uniform wallop the enemy, denying them ground. Our super soldiers bash their brains in—and sometimes break their necks—for our entertainment. And we cheer. Because who doesn’t love a proxy war? It’s tribal. Downright primal. Are you entertained?! *checks notes* Pardon. Apparently, baseball is America’s game. A sport that considers the no-hitter, a game in which absolutely nothing happens, as the pinnacle of the art. A sport […]

Strike Three! You’re caught.

Ballpark Mysteries Super Special #3: Subway Series Surprise by David A. Kelly

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Ballpark Mysteries Super Special #3: Subway Series Surprise by David A. Kelly and illustrated by Mark Meyers, is a to first base story: Mike and Kate are two sleuths and baseball lovers, that have solved several mysteries based around baseball. They are modern-day Encyclopedia Brown meets Babe Ruth. This time they need to find out who not only stole Kate’s moms notes about the book she is writing, but who has been pulling pranks on the Mets! The Subway series between the Yankees and Mets […]



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