Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The girl, the mother, the countess and the parrot

The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo

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Author Kate DiCamillo is one of those authors I find myself having hits and misses with. I still consider her an author I enjoy, but I’m not always the audience she was going for. With that said, I was excited when I found a copy of The Hotel Balzaar (illustrated by Júlia Sardà) in our (unfortunately) damaged books. I had been wanting to read something that was a novel to break my graphic novel habit (as you know a favorite genre) but nothing too heavy. […]

Dung Dung! Holmes is on the case…. sort of

Paw & Order Vol. 1: The Grilled Cheese Caper by Jason Platt

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If your age five and up reader is looking for a cute mystery with the elements of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meets Law and Order meets Colombo quality then you want Paw & Order Vol. 1: The Grilled Cheese Caper by Jason Platt. Mostly the shorter graphic novel is based in a Holmes and Watson dynamic (a cat and dog), but our cat hero is a bit more goofy than Holmes, so has the bumbling feel of Columbo. Of course, Columbo was much more […]

Out of step in dance, love and friendship

Leap by Simina Popescu

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One of my flaws is that I collect links to reader copies, then forget to read them. I have had one of those links for so long I had forgotten that I not only had it, but all about the book, Leap by Simina Popescu. But once I found this graphic novel, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read it. Dancers? Ballet? Another LGBTQ story? Not that I have anything against any of those subjects or themes, but dancing and ballet are not usually my […]

Uni Uni Unicorns and cupcakes and friendship and balloons and magic and fun

Unicornia V02: A Magical Birthday by Ana Punset

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While you would think I review every book I read, I actually don’t. Of course, I tend to write more reviews than not, even for books that might not have completely “grabbed” my “love” or “really like” buttons. Sometimes I write one because I didn’t finish it. But that is not the case with the below series/book. Not to say that Unicornia V02: A Magical Birthday by Ana Punset and Diana Vicedo (illustrator) was bad, it just did not grab me. This is partly because […]

A romance about audiobook narrators, by a queen of audiobook narration

Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan

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Sewanee (pronounced Swanie, several characters call her Swan) Chester was a child actress on a popular sitcom, but a serious injury while filming her big break as an adult led to her losing an eye and becoming permanently scarred, so now she makes her living as an audiobook narrator. While it may not be as glamorous as acting, she’s very good at it and has won several awards. Early in her career, she also narrated romance novels, but now her cynicism makes it too hard […]

Orris and Timble are back for round 2

Orris and Timble: Lost and Found: (A Sweet and Funny Early Chapter Book About Friendship, Trust, and Finding Your Way) by Kate DiCamillo

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Orris and Timble: Lost and Found: (A Sweet and Funny Early Chapter Book About Friendship, Trust, and Finding Your Way) by Kate DiCamillo and illustrator Carmen Mok is a sequel of Orris and Timble: The Beginning. It has many elements and pieces from book one, though we see more of Timble’s journey this time. However, when I started it I thought I was reading book one again. This took me out of the moment for a while. And, in fact, had to back track while […]



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