Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The struggle between who you are and who you want to be

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

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The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett was another Mocha Girls Read pick. I definitely would not have read it without the book club impetus. To no surprise, as indicated by this annual onslaught of reviews, I procrastinated reading it. I ended up reading most of it in one day. It was well worth the time and exceeded my expectations. The novel centers on two Black twin sisters who run away from a small Black community.  The town prides itself on being a close-knit town for […]

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All the Names Given: Poems by Raymond Antrobus

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I was unable to finish this book of poetry by Raymond Antrobus easily or quickly. While I enjoyed what I read of All the Names Given: Poems the poetry felt repeated and best suited for a novel and not poems. This bogged me down, making me have to stop and analyze what was read. It was not something that could be consumed in one reading. Antrobus speaks on the page, as if he is having a conversation with you. Which is an interesting concept as […]

Yo ho ho and a slice of politics

Geronimo Stilton Reporter #10 Blackrat’s Treasure by Geronimo Stilton

Mayor Good Boy by Dave Scheidt

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Two books I read that are cute but not “all time faves” for me are the two below. As an adult reading, they were nice quick reads, but for the child reader it will make them sit and read. Reluctant or seasoned veternas alike will find these delightful. I have seen the books Geronimo Stilton for several years now, but never felt I needed to read them. I knew the types of kids that were reading them; therefore, I could easily recommend the books to […]

Don’t have a grandfather? Go pick one out at your local senior home

Can You Whistle, Johanna? by Ulf Stark

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Can You Whistle, Johanna? by  Ulf Stark, translated by Julia Marshall and illustrated by Anna Hoglund was not what I expected of this English translation of a Swedish story. I thought at first it was going to be a book about a friend teaching another to friend (a female) to whistle. Or maybe a younger sibling some whistling techniques. Perhaps even, it was going to be some way to show that boys and girls are equal (everyone can whistle). Instead, it is about a young […]

Cute in a not eat your face way

Fly by Night by Tara O’Connor.

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Thanks to my holiday book exchange, I had a chance to pick up Fly by Night by Tara O’Connor.  I had started a sampler awhile back and thought it would be slightly on the slower side, but still it was a fascinating concept. Twin sisters, one who has gone missing, and spooky felt right.  And yes, it was not super-fast pace, but kept things moving. The idea of true supernature never came into play for those few pages, but it quickly does once you get […]

I can see a better time When all our dreams come true

The Stonekeeper's Curse by Kazu Kibuishi

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Amazingly, I only discovered that I could download graphic novels to my library app a few weeks ago, and my son and I have been tearing through some pretty good ones since then. He mentioned that they read the first book in the Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi, The Stonekeeper, at school, so we sought the second one. Thus, I went into reading this book with an 8 year old’s synopsis of the first book. Briefly, Emily has inherited a stone amulet that confers power, […]



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