Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Just what I needed to cure the pandemic blues

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

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CBR12 BINGO: Book Club Under normal circumstances, I’d be spending a good chunk of my Saturdays volunteering at the zoo. Obviously, that isn’t happening right now, because pandemic. One consequence of that is I haven’t been able to see much of the other volunteers that I frequently spend my Saturdays with, except for a couple of Zoom meetings. I made a casual suggestion that we could form a book club; one person got excited and ran with it, and we ended up with a small […]

Since I couldn’t pick just one, this is a long review with no pillows included for a break nap

beast feast by Douglas Florian

Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

One Year at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks

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cbr12bingo Gateway As a former-full-time bookseller and now part-time bookseller, I do not have that one book, author or genre to get a person reading. I have a book/author/genre to fit the person I am speaking with. However, within some genres I do have a go-to author or in one case, publisher. Two areas that many are not familiar with are poetry and graphic novels. Or more accurately in the case of school-aged students they do not want to be familiar with poetry and adults […]

Eventual Character Growth

Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing by Allison Winn Scotch

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CBR12 Bingo: No Money! This was an Amazon First Reads book. Cleo McDougal is a 37-year-old U.S. Senator and single mom to 14-year-old Lucas. She is considering a presidential run and suddenly gets a lot of press when her former best friend MaryAnne pens an op-ed calling Cleo a cheater and claiming that while Cleo might do good things, she is not a good person. Cleo shares with Gaby, her close friend and campaign manager, that she has a list of 233 regrets (ultimately more […]

For a fantasy novel, these characters are a little too real

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

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The Magicians by Lev Grossman follows Quentin Coldwater through his education at Brakebills, a college for magic, and his post-graduation life. Quentin is a depressed, maladjusted jerk. He is not a wholly good person. No one at Brakebills or any magician seems to be a good person. Not Quentin’s best friend Alice and her family trauma that weighs her down to the point of never standing out, not Eliot and his ostentatious proclivity to exclude, not Janet and her razor-sharp tongue that inflicts lashes wherever […]

A marvelous extension of an already incredible, established universe

Avatar The Last Airbender: The Promise by Gene Luen Yang

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I am very lucky that I have adult friends who are nerds in the same way that I am. A friend of mine recently let me borrow all 5 complete collections of the Avatar graphic novels. This review is of the first one. Avatar the Last Airbender: The Promise picks immediately following the events of the three seasons of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Avatar Aang and newly crowned Fire Lord Zuko must find away to heal the world of the damage that […]

There is more than just that silly ol’ bear

Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne

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cbr12bingo White WhaleWhen I was looking for a book for the Roaring 20’s, I found Now We Are Six in the process. I realized afterwards, I could have picked any book for my White Whale (I have so many) but while looking at it, I realized I have never read A.A. Milne. Or if I have (or had him read to me) I do not remember. And for $3 (minus my discount) what did I have to lose? What did I have to lose? About […]



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