Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I found a new place to dwell

Heartbreak Hotel by Micol Arianna Beltramini

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Several books on my recent HBR (Have Been Read) list have had similar feelings and/or themes. And yet, each one is its own unique read. Heartbreak Hotel by Micol Arianna Beltramini and illustrator Agnese Innocente falls into this “alike but not alike” category. This coming of age story is similar to the stories The History of Everything: A Graphic Novel by Victoria Evans, Raging Clouds by Yudori, and The Flip Side by Jason Walz. Yet, it is also its own work and has its own […]

Topsy turvy and then some

The Flip Side: A Graphic Novel by Jason Walz

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The Flip Side: A Graphic Novel is an unusual book that has all the feelings, but not the ones you might think of at first. They are the ones that we can share simultaneously, but at the same time, each of us have our own way of dealing with them. The first is grief and the second fear. Jason Walz shows us this through the eyes of two main characters. One, a boy who lost his best friend to (assuming) cancer (or other similar illness), […]

“Oh, of course. Mediocre men receiving positions of power they haven’t earned because of their birthrights. How against the grain.”

Accomplice to the Villain (Assistant and the Villain, 3) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

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All Evie Sage wanted was a well-paying job to support her family that didn’t involve her boss attempting to sexually assault her. Now, she’s the assistant accomplice (she got a promotion!) to The Villain, the kingdom’s most terrifying figure. All her job was supposed to entail was “light paperwork and occasional beheadings,” but now, she’s knee-deep in torture, familial betrayal, a kingdom-ending (or saving) prophecy, and a flirtatious disaster with the boss. All while dealing with the fact that she may not be as sweet […]

“Death is the engine that keeps us running, giving us the motivation to achieve, learn, love, and create.”

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

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CBR17 Bingo: Review – I first came across Caitlin Doughty and her books through numerous reviewers on Goodreads. Caitlin Doughty had been long fascinated with death, but when she started working at a crematory, she soon found herself more interested in the question of why death in America has become so distant from the general public. I am maybe not the right audience for Doughty’s message about the loss of intimacy and ritual in the American way of death. I am a Hindu, and we […]

Sad books that help make it better

The Fabric of Us by Aditi Anand

Where Are You, Eddie? A Companion to Michael Rosen's Sad Book by Michael Rosen and Gill Smith

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This is a review that seems like another review about a book I almost didn’t write up, but it is not really. Oh, yes, I almost did not write up The Fabric of Us by Aditi Anand (due later May 2026; read via an online reader copy) because I could not think of enough words for a full review. At least not by itself. It was only when I read  Where Are You, Eddie? A Companion to Michael Rosen’s Sad Book by Michael Rosen and […]

Book two times three

Rema Chronicles V02 Kingdom of Water: A Graphic Novel by Amy Kim

Grand Slam Romance V02: Major League Hotties by Ollie Hicks and Emma Oosterhous

Double Booking V02 When and Where Wolf by Pangburn,, Kim Shearer and Nic Touris

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Sequels are always an interesting read. They can  be the best book in the group or the worst. They can also be so much later than book one that you forget everything about what happened before.  And that last one is what happened to Kingdom of Water: A Graphic Novel (the Rema Chronicles #2) by Amy Kim. I started reading (via an online reader, due August 2025) and said, “Who are these people again?” Therefore, read volumes one and two close together. Spoiler: There will […]



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