Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The enemy’s gate is down

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

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This was the book my library chose to have as our Teen Book Club pick for the summer.  It was my suggestion, both because it’s an awesome book and because we had multiple copies in our library.  I was supposed to have a grand total of *one* teen show up today, and instead I got *zero.* Sadness.  This was one of my favorite books in high school, enough that I read the sequels, which are weird AF.  (My suggestion: skip them, and read the Ender’s […]

“Into many lives a little irregularity must fall.” (CANNONBALL!! Bingo #3 & 4)

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I had read quite a few reviews of this book, and still I don’t think I fully grasped what to expect. Back in January both yesknopemaybe and sistercoyote’s reviews of this book got me to add it to both my to read list, and found it a home on my Read Harder Challenge. My exact words were “Okay, that’s it, you all win. On the to read list it goes. I’m not even that big a Sherlock Holmes fan (hush, I know, I know.)” At […]

I’ve been waiting for this moment for Cannonball my life, oh Lord

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CBR10Bingo: Backlog (Cannonball! and Bingo! Woohoo!) After reading a few Sherman Alexie books a few years ago, Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony started popping up in my suggestions, and for some reason, I thought it was poetry rather than a novel. Once I read the description, I put it on my wishlist, where it languished for several months until I finally bought a copy last summer at The Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles on a long lunch break from jury duty. I’ve pulled it off […]

The snoring, the rain, and Mama’s hair that smells like bread.

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I feel incredibly robbed not to have found this book when I was mid-adolescence, when I would have reveled in empathy with Esperanza, the beautiful, awkward, sad, scared, bold, shy, lonely, social narrator who is coming-of-age through the course of the year during which The House on Mango Street takes place. Cisneros writes this book as an extended series of short vignettes: portraits of people, places, and things in Esperanza’s life; all the things that make up the tapestry of her youth. With these vignettes, […]

I know you little libertine. I know you’re a cannonball.

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As some of you might be aware, I recently started a new job. My first real job since Bunnybean was about a year old…and she’s 13 now. So, its been a while. The great thing about this job, is that I’m not in an office — I’m out driving around and visiting elementary schools, and talking about books. I know! Books! In my first week, my new boss gave me 9 brand new books to read. It was amazing. And then they showed me the […]

My life was an absolute bastard with a chip on his shoulder.

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Who recommended this to me? How did this end up on my to-be-read list? Whoever you are, thanks, my friend! It was an absolutely fantastic interlude after the deep, dark despair inspired by the “Peculiar Children” series. Honestly, this is the kind of story-telling I think people are talking about when they talk about Rainbow Rowell (note: I have only read one Rowell book, and it was totally fine). The prose is very sharp and full of whimsy. It’s clever, but lands on the right […]



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