Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Biography of Remus J. Lupin

All the Young Dudes by MsKingBean89

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All the Young Dudes is a work of Harry Potter inspired fanfic that focuses on the relationship between Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, making it what is known as a “Wolfstar” story. Apparently, it is the #1 download on Archive of Our Own (AO3). I first heard about it a couple of weeks ago in this Slate piece, which raved about it. At 188 chapters (and some half a million pages) it is, they say, half as long as all 7 HP novels, and readers, […]

“What is grief, if not love persevering?”

The Art of Reassembly: A Memoir of Early Mother Loss and Aftergrief by Peg Conway

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In November 1970, when cancer treatments were rudimentary and grief counseling nonexistent, my cousin Peg Conway’s mother died at the age of 37. My aunt Mary Lee was my father’s twin, and she had had breast cancer that metasticized into brain cancer and took her life, leaving behind a husband and four children. In the decades since that tragic event, Peg has struggled to deal with her unacknowledged grief, and this memoir chronicles her journey from hurting child to adult looking for healing. It is […]

Get to know Echo before her series streams on Disney+

Daredevil: Parts of a Hole by David Mack, Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palmiotti

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This graphic novel comprises the series of stories by David Mack and Joe Quesada that introduce the character Echo — a young woman who is deaf and Native American, and who possesses extraordinary ability to physically mimic whatever she sees. This allows her to become an excellent musician, dancer, and, yes, a fighter. I first learned about this character from Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection which opens with a short piece about Echo by David Mack, who himself has Cherokee heritage. The pairing of Echo […]

It’s history, it’s the Little Mermaid, it’s fantastic!

Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen

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Mix West African lore with The Little Mermaid and you get this exciting fantasy novel and the beginning of a series featuring Simidele (Simi) the Mami Wata (mermaid) who inhabits the waters around West Africa in the 15th century when the trans-Atlantic slave trade is beginning to grow. This YA novel is a combination of fantasy and fact, allowing Natasha Bowen to introduce readers to factual information about West African cultures and society as well as the myths and lore of the diverse people who […]

Race, Zombies and US History

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

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I read and reviewed Dread Nation a couple of years ago but felt that I needed to do a re-read to refresh my memory before starting book 2 — Deathless Divide. In these novels, Justina Ireland imagines the US in the period immediately following the Civil War but with a strange twist. At the Battle of Gettysburg, the war ended when the battlefield dead rose up as zombies or shamblers, forcing Union and Rebel soldiers to work together against the undead. A new kind of […]

A timely mystery written over 50 years ago

The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side by Agatha Christie

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The Mirror Crack’d is a Miss Marple mystery, and while I generally prefer Hercule Poirot, this is a story that made quite an impression on me when I first read it as a kid. I have thought of it often over the years but especially over the past few years for reasons that I cannot divulge since it would totally spoil the mystery. Let’s just say it’s timely and a fun, quick read. Christie published this story in 1962 and it has gotten the film/TV […]



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