Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Sadly, the album is NOT on iTunes.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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CBR11 Bingo – Canonballer Says   This book has been popping up on ‘must read’ lists, and in bookstore displays all year, but in reading the description, I wasn’t sure it would be my jam. But then it was on the new releases shelf at the library, and there had been a couple recent 5star reviews here (Jen K, Manimama, and ardaigle), so I tossed it in my pile on a whim. The book is laid out like a VH1 Behind the Music interview, with […]

I can’t say it improved with age

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

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Cbr11bingo Back to School Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage was one of the assigned texts for my 11th grade American Literature course some 37 years ago. I don’t remember much about the novel other than that I hated it and relied heavily on Cliffs Notes to get through it. Having now re-read it, I still don’t care for it. I can appreciate that this novel was probably shocking for its time (published in 1895) due to its realistic depiction of the violence of […]

“I have no interest in your orders, I have no interest in what was legal at the time”

The Huntress by Kate Quinn

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Bingo Square: History Schmistory Kate Quinn’s follow up to The Alice Network once again follows multiple timelines and perspectives, though the timelines are much closer together this time around and involve three people.  After a short prologue which includes the only part from the perspective of the titular huntress and a newspaper article introducing the war crimes the huntress committed during World War II, the novel alternates between the character views of Jordan, a teenage girl living in 1946 Boston.  Her widowed father, an antiquarian, […]

Our family’s favourite children’s books

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

We Found a Hat by Jon Klassen

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#CBR11 Bingo: Award Winner  I Want My Hat Back has won award in at least three countries, including the Selezionato Mostra Internazionale d’Illustratazione per infanzia di Sarmede in 2011, E.B White Award Read Aloud Award for Picture Books in 2012, Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for Bilderbuch in 2013. This is Not My Hat won the Caldecott Medal and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Children’s Picture Book in 2013, and the Premi Llibreter de narritiva for Album illustrat and the Kate Greenaway medal in 2014. I Want My […]

“She was glad to have met someone who liked to read.” (Double Bingo)

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

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#CBR11 Bingo: Cannonballer Says (recommended by Carriejay, faintingviolet, emmalita, dAvid, tillie, badkittyuno and Narfna, among others) Official book description: Lovelace was once merely a ship’s artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in an new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has no memory of what came before. As Lovelace learns to negotiate the universe and discover who she is, she makes friends with Pepper, an excitable engineer, who’s determined to help her learn and grow. Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people […]

Dear Sweet Pea, Julie Murphy’s MG debut

Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy

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CBR11Bingo – Own Voices! Holy poop, this is my 52nd review! I’ve officially cannonballed! Not that I’ll stop playing now, though. I am a huge fan of Julie Murphy’s YA books, so when I saw the ARC for her middle grade debut was available at Book Expo, I knew I’d be snapping it up both for my pleasure reading and for my work on the RI Middle School Book Award Committee! While I’d usually save my off-committee summertime for “anything but children’s books”, I decided […]



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