Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight”

All The Way To The River (2025) by Elizabeth Gilbert

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Bingo square: RED (as in red flag as well as the cover). Content note: Cancer, death, drug addiction, abuse. I picked this book up because I read the excerpts elsewhere, and I was curious about the bigger picture–and also my thesis was on elegy, poems about dead people, and some of the questions that poets ask about how to remember the dead rather than create the dead in their own image still resonate with me. In Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search For Everything Across […]

I liked this book, but can’t do it justice and F- Cancer!

Kimiko Does Cancer: A Graphic Memoir by Kimiko Tobimatsu

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While not a perfect read, Kimiko Does Cancer: A Graphic Memoir has several good reflections of what is happening to the author and has strong relatability. You might not have had cancer (or a serious illness) but you can relate to her struggles and journey. I found myself realizing I have thought/felt some of the things she talks about with my own health issues, as much of what she says and does is universal. It really isn’t about cancer, that is just the starting point […]

I recommend BINGO and this book

The Last Time We Spoke: A Story of Loss by Jesse Mechanic

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cbr17bingo Rec’d: Grief stories are not new, but each is unique to that person. The main thing I came away with from reading The Last Time We Spoke: A Story of Loss, is that the author (Jesse Mechanic) is human: selfish, loving, scared, fearless, angry and hopeful. They are both a reliable and unreliable narrator as they are telling the story from their eyes and over a 20 year period. The art is tone setting and allows us a peek into the mind of someone […]

Towards the hospital waiting room

A Story about Cancer with a Happy Ending by India Desjardins

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We know there will be a happy ending in A Story about Cancer with a Happy Ending, as the title tells us that. Therefore this Columbo-like story (if you know what that means, we can be friends) by India Desjardins (and Solange Ouellet is the translator) of knowing the ending, but seeing how the characters get there, does not have a surprise at the end, but it does have an emotion that has not been felt for a while in these characters lives: Hope.  Told […]

Thyme travels

Counting Thyme by Melanie Conklin

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As an adult, I found a few areas in Counting Thyme by Melanie Conklin that were not “smooth” for me, however, from ages 10 to 14 I would have enjoyed it. You are there with our narrator Thyme (like the clock, with a HY). You worry about fitting in at your new school, you worry about your siblings and your relationships with them, you worry about your old friendships, you are sad and happy, you try to balance your “now and then” and along the […]

“She seems to be doing fine somewhere. But no, she’s actually nowhere.”

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

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I Wish I Could Say “Thank You” is an autobiographical manga about the author’s mother dying of pancreatic cancer and how she and her family deal with this transitional phase in their lives. I got this from MoCCA Fest and haven’t seen it for sale in any bookstores around me, which cements why I like going to comic-cons. You get to see stuff from smaller presses that you might overlook or might be unavailable depending on distribution, and that’s often the material that I find […]



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