Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Name. Time. Hell.

The Hellbound Volume one by Yeon San-Ho

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This, to say the least, is an unusual book.  What is/was the point? Who are these people that grace the pages? Why do they do what they do? (Okay, the officer who had his wife murdered, and his son, make sense, but still). When is this book taking place? (Is it now? Or a future timeline? Or even an alternative timeline?) So many questions, so few answers in The Hellbound Volume one manga graphic novel. The creators, Yeon San-Ho, Choi Gyu-Seok, Danny Lim (translation) and […]

History is Made by Persistence and Knowing the Right People

A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton & the Civil War by Stephen B. Oates

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Clara Barton is one of those historical figures that sits as a vaguely understood fact in my mind. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about her existence, but beyond being the founder of the American Red Cross, she never bore much significance to me. But then I wrote a little article about visiting small historical sites and the “Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office” came up in my search. A cursory perusal of the website had me fascinated, and I needed to know […]

“Which is more mysterious, more inexplicable, dying or/staying alive?”

Earthling: Poems by James Longenbach

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Me: “Oh, it’s called Earthling, like what aliens called humans in 1950s sci-fi, lol!” James Logenbach: “Earthling is one of the oldest words in the English language, our original word for ploughman, a keeper of the earth. In poems simultaneously ordinary and otherworldly…” Logenbach’s Earthling is certainly about things of the earth. He ponders (fixates?) on how we’re here for a little, like everyone else has been or will be, but the earth and sky and water remain. In early parts of the book he […]

I am getting E.A. Poe vibes here….

Forever Maps by Michael Lagace

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cbr14bingo Gaslight Level 2 Forever Maps could fit several of the categories, but I am picking Gaslight as this is a book started in the late 1770’s and ends “now” (or at the very least sometime after the late 1940’s), There are horses and carriages are sent to fetch people, with cars only show up at the end. There are traveling salesmen who go to trading post after western store, and a character who is a cruel, perhaps even evil, but truly sad, liar. Michael […]

this is the sort of book that requires some quiet wallowing time post-finish

The Everlasting by Katy Simpson Smith

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I picked this one up because of the cover. I saw it featured at my local bookstore and put it in my basket without even reading the blurb on the back. Had I read the blurb, I would have KNOWN that it was meant for me none the less, but something about the neon pile of bodies reached into my brain and demanded to be brought home. Unfortunately, “brought home” was as far as the demand went. It sat in my literal TBR pile until […]

Wording your Grief

Welcome to the Grief Club: Because You Don't Have to Go Through It Alone by Janie Kwoh

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Welcome to the Grief Club: Because You Don’t Have to Go Through It Alone by Janie Kwoh, was not exactly what I was looking for (even though I was not completely sure what that was). However, it turned into something I needed. It might be a little hard to read about grief while going through the first stage of grief, or the “immediate afterwards,” but this book helps with that. The chapters are short (a few pages each), the text might be a bit busy […]



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