Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Oona was still learning, everytime she leaped no matter the year someone important would be absent from life.”

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

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Buzzword Title Challenge 25: Alliteration Buzzword Cover Challenge 25: Eyes CBR17 Bingo: O (A book title that starts with O) Official plot summary (because I read this back in July): Just because life may be out of order, doesn’t mean it’s broken. It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight, she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain […]

90s Pop Culture Drama FTW

Hits, Flops and Other Illusions by Ed Zwick

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Recently, a Gwyneth Paltrow biography was published and people were only too happy to revisit and re-examine the old gossip about the friendship breakdown between Paltrow and our 90s queen Winona Ryder. One of the articles referenced an excerpt from Ed Zwick’s memoir. The excerpt was about his struggle to get Shakespeare in Love made, although it was primarily focused on the behind the scenes drama associated with the original cast, focusing on a young Julia Roberts. It all read as very juicy and 90s, […]

I will love her and pet her and squeeze her and call her Georgie.

Ice Planet Barbarians (Special Edition) by Ruby Dixon

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He wears leather, eats raw meat, and hunts with slings and bone knives. Big guy’s probably never heard of a space heater, much less a spaceship. ― Ruby Dixon, Ice Planet Barbarians CBR17 Bingo: Letter I When I came across this special edition in the used book section of one of my favorite bookstores, I decided to buy it because I’d heard it was good and because it was only $5. But then I remembered the tower of unread books in my TBR pile and […]

This book didn’t have an index

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

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Bingo Row 5 – work The Library Book by Susan Orlean is “about” the 1986 fire at the LA central library. The actual fire wasn’t the point of the book so much as the excuse for it. It was really about the Los Angeles library, libraries in general, and mostly about librarians doing their job. The book covered librarians ranging from superheroes to self-centered jerks, with a range of gender and competency, but all of them care about libraries and they all care about their […]

Not Enough Beatrice and Benedick, Way Too Much Claudio

Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare

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cbr17bingo – play (spoilers aplenty ahead) I hate Claudio. I feel like that shouldn’t be my takeaway from this play, but here we are. The play centers largely on Claudio and Hero, who early in the play are engaged to be wed. Beatrice and Benedick are the secondary enemies-to-lovers couple, but I can certainly see why some productions of the play choose to emphasize their role because by modern-day standards, the Claudio/Hero relationship is somewhat unpalatable. Claudio is a favorite of the prince Don Pedro, […]

“Kids do well when they can.”

The Explosive Child by Ross W. Greene

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Cannonball Read Bingo: Family “Behaviorally challenging kids are challenging because they’re lacking the skills to not be challenging.” This book is geared toward parents of “explosive” children: the kids whose emotional outbursts and out-of-control behaviors are becoming exhausting and overwhelming to everyone in the house. Greene suggests that these problems are caused by “lagging skills” and “unsolved problems,” not by the kid’s desire to be difficult. He then lays out a model that helps parents guide their children in developing these lagging skills and understand […]



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