Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I’m no expert, but I remember reading somewhere, every time you retrieve a memory, that act of retrieval, it corrupts the memory a little bit. Maybe changes it a little.”

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

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This book is highly readable. While it may appear that I am damning with faint praise, that is not my intention. This book is readable because, despite being filled with topics and characters that do not automatically appeal to me, I was interested and invested from page one. Had this book not been written by Emily St. John Mandel I probably would have glanced at the dust jacket and gone on my merry way, but since it was written by her I knew that I […]

“Whatever happens, believe that the journey is worth taking, and then you will reach its end.”

Seaward by Susan Cooper

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Cally and Westerly are strangers from opposite ends of the world who are about to be brought together in a place they least expect. Both reeling from grief at losing their parents, they find themselves in a mysterious, magical, and malevolent land that has echoes of their own, but otherwise is beyond imagining. They each have their own shared directive: to find the sea, where their parents implied they could be found. In this land, they meet a majestic, beautiful, and terrifying woman named Tyrannis, […]

“But if you could tell science like a story, I’d pay attention.”

The Line Tender by Kate Allen

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Lucy’s mother was a marine biologist who was particularly interested in sharks. People told her mother that this enthusiasm would get her killed, but it was a brain aneurysm that ended up taking her life. Lucy was seven when that happened, and while she still finds herself occasionally swept up in bouts of grief, she and her father are getting by. Friends and neighbors help a lot. Fred from across the street is her best friend, though now at 13 years old, she is beginning […]

The lose of a pet does not have to not have hope

Where Lily Isn’t by Julie Paschiks

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When you can judge a book by its cover, that is not always a bad thing. I had a feeling that Where Lily Isn’t was not going to be a happy book. And it is not a happy book. But it is also not as sad of a book as I had thought it might be. Julie Paschiks has created a sweet, but not overly sappy, story about the loss of a beloved pet. It is a simple (but not simplistic) and a straightforward story. […]

Reading isn’t always a good idea while wearing eyeliner

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

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When she was 15, Laurel Mack’s beautiful daughter (and favourite child) Ellie left the house to go to the library and never returned. Written off as a runaway by the police, in the years since Laurel has lost what was left of her family – divorcing her husband as she couldn’t stand how he was able to get on with things, and withdrawing emotionally from her surviving son and daughter due to her inability to deal with her own grief. Getting through her days by […]

“That’s the truth about making mistakes, about making wrong choices. You live with them, and if you’re lucky you get enough perspective to see where you went astray. “

Luck of the Draw (Chance of a Lifetime #2) by Kate Clayborn

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I’m going to have such a tough time telling you why I like this book so much. This is my second Fake Relationship Romance Novels in recent days. Jackie Lau’s A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year handled the trope well with friends who agree to be in a short term fake relationship for the sake of familial peace. It was well executed and well plotted and I happily gave it three stars. This one shares a trope, and that’s about where the comparison ends. […]



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