Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Her dedushka teaches

Dedushka: Memories of My Grandpa and Ukraine by Katerina Spaeth

by Leave a Comment

When you try to read a book online and you can’t find the format for your equipment, or you just can’t find a copy, you get a little more than a little more than frustrated. Or at least  I do. And that is what happened with Dedushka: Memories of My Grandpa and Ukraine by Katerina Spaeth. I could not find a reader copy anywhere. And I was not looking forward to waiting until September 2025 for it. But, finally one day in April there was […]

I’m not the audience, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be

Pi Squad Mysteries #1  Sabotage at Casa Grande Springs by DD Sterner

by Leave a Comment

There are few books that I read a page or two and feel like I cannot go on. I usually say, okay, it’s slow right now, but it’ll pick up, and it does.  However, Pi Squad Mysteries #1  Sabotage at Casa Grande Springs by DD Sterner (cover design by Alyssa Tora Aman) was not one of  those books. However (again), I kept reading. And my eight or nine year old brain said, “You would have enjoyed this as a kid.”  Just not your adult self. […]

Told in English and Chinese

Grandpa’s Magic Mask: A Story of Growth and Bravery in English and Chinese by Siping Wu

A House Just for Mommy: A Bedtime Story Told in English and Chinese by Dayong Gan

The Boy, the Deer, and the King: A Legend Retold in English and Chinese by Xiaochun Tang

Little Malan’s Debut: A Story of Courage Told in English and Chinese by Lumin Qian

by Leave a Comment

I do not speak a second language. As an adult, I regret not working harder on that, but I take solace in the fact that there are bilingual books out there and I can read the English part and admire the second language. Usually this is French or Spanish, but I have noticed that Chinese is taking its place. I’m not sure if the Chinese in these four books is Mandarin or Cantonese, so please let me know if you know! All will be available […]

Choose Your Own Adventure for the younger crowd

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Ghost on the Mountain (Dragonlarks) by Kyandreia Jones

by Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you, but I used to enjoy the Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid/pre-teen. They were easy and even back then I liked that quick read. That mystery of where your choice would take you. Now they were not my main genre for reading and I moved onto other books, but I always held a small space in my heart for them. And as a bookseller I found them again, but again, I don’t need to read. But I found […]

The next cooking book but without the Jem Milton connection

Cooking with Monsters Volume 1 The Beginner's Guide to Culinary Combat by Jordan Alsaqa

by Leave a Comment

adventureAt first, I thought Cooking with Monsters Volume 1 The Beginner’s Guide to Culinary Combat by Jordan Alsaqa and Vivian Truong was going to be a little scary as they are fighting monsters. And it looked older than what it turned out to be, so I was expecting mature death scenes. I thought it was going to be way more serious than it really is. But in the end, the only thing I can say is this graphic novel is:  Over. The. Top. The end.  Yet, […]

Celebrating and loss

Popi's All Souls Song by C.K. Malone

by Leave a Comment

Popi’s All Souls Song by C.K. Malone and illustrated by Shelly Swann is due mid September 2024. I was able to find an online reader copy and I am curious about the final product. I think reading online made me “miss” some important pieces of the story. There is a small bump near the end that did not flow for me. However, overall it is an interesting story that takes a familiar topic (the death of a loved one) and handles it with love, care […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo