Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

CBR11Bingo: Own Voices

Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot

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Terese Marie Mailhot is a First Nation Canadian from Seabird Island. In Heart Berries, she writes about her experience growing up on Seabird Island First Nation reservation (Own Voices) and how writing helped her through hospitalization as an adult due to post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder. It is a beautiful, painful book. “In white culture, forgiveness is synonymous with letting go. In my culture, I believe we carry pain until we can reconcile with it through ceremony. Pain is not framed like […]

CBR11Bingo: Reading the TBR

Maybe You Never Cry Again by Bernie Mac

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I added this book to my TBR on Aug 11, 2014 (Reading the TBR!), but couldn’t find a copy anywhere. I finally decided to just use an Audible credit on the audio version, and listened to it. Honestly, it was good but not really worth a 5 year wait. But at least that knocked one book off my TBR! “When you see people in terms of race or religion, that’s when the trouble starts. I don’t understand why people work so hard at pointing out […]

CBR11Bingo: SCIENCE!

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

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Siddhartha Mukherjee is a physician, biologist, and oncologist, and this is a book all about genes — a massive and complicated area of science (science!) that he breaks down wonderfully for his readers. The audio book was 20 hours long. It took me an entire road trip to get through. I loved it. The subtitle of The Gene is An Intimate History, and intimate is right. This book is so incredibly detailed — he examines every single aspect of genes: how they affect our personalities, […]

Fairies, A Forest, and A Knight

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

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Well there was just too much happening in this standalone. I loved the idea of a world where fairies stand alongside humans and magic is real. It was also interesting to hear how our history and music stayed the same so you get some funny pop-culture comments here and there. That said, Hazel and Ben were exhausting. Both of them obsessed with being in love and I just wanted to say good grief none of this is going to matter when you are older. I […]

“I can’t help but sense that desperation is right around the bend.”

Dry by Shusterman, Neal

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cbr11bingo – Listicle! (Dry is featured on this list of 2018 must-read teen fiction) Drought isn’t a new phenomenon to Alyssa or anyone else in California, but the ante is upped when one day the taps run dry.  Quickly termed the “tap-out” by local news, it doesn’t take long for stores to run out of bottled water and for people to start freaking out.  In this environmental disaster book, Neal Shusterman and his son Jarrod explore the possibilities of how chaos could unfold in California […]

A Fry Cook With Heart

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

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I was in the mood for a long cry so I read this book. Yes, I know how that sounds, but it’s true. I first read Odd Thomas back in 2003 when it was first published. I had just moved to DC and was reeling from having to move after just burying my mother the month before. So reading this book I had no idea what was coming. Dean Koontz at that time was a comfort read for me. I loved to read his books […]



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