Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Gorgeous Love Letter to Libraries, Gardens, and the People who Create Community Spaces

Where You’re Planted by Melanie Sweeney

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I really enjoyed Melanie Sweeney’s debut, Take Me Home, so I had high expectations for her sophomore book, Where You’re Planted. My expectations were blown out of the water. Where You’re Planted inserted itself right into my chest. It is definitely in the top 5 books I’ve read this year. Melanie Sweeney writes with tremendous emotional intelligence. This book is a love letter to libraries, gardens, and the public employees who create public spaces and build communities. It’s for the people who hate to ask […]

Joy, fusion bbq, music, and love jump off the page

A Little Kissing Between Friends by Chencia C. Higgins

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I fell in love with this book in the first paragraph. I fell in love with Cyn and her daddy in the first chapter. I fell in love with Juleesa in Chapter 2 and by Chapter 5 I loved everybody and everything about this book. A Little Kissing Between Friends is a love letter to multi-generational community, friendships, music and food. Chencia C. Higgins starts with Cyn remembering the day she let her daddy know that she liked girls. It came out as a part of […]

Power Down

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind

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Years ago, I half-read something by Malcolm Gladwell about how he wasn’t sure that the Enron execs did anything wrong. Gladwell’s thing is not my thing; he’s the kind of faux intellectual others love that I find empty and lacking. But at the time, having no idea what actually brought Enron down, I figured he might be on to something. Well he wasn’t. Malcolm Gladwell is wrong again. Also, the things rich white men get away with… I am a white man, not rich by […]

This is my reminder to read local authors and poets

The Raven, The Bayou, and The Willow by Tamara Al-Qaisi-Coleman

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BINGO – Hot (Al-Qaisi-Coleman writes about what it’s like to be of Iraqi heritage while living in Houston, both of which are very hot locations) The Raven, The Bayou, and The Willow is a collection of poems by a local Houston poet, Tamara Al-Qaisi-Coleman. This collection speaks of Al-Qaisi-Coleman’s experience as a biracial woman in the South, of both the challenges and the triumphs of her identity. There are plenty of injustices and prejudices to point the spotlight at, and Al-Qaisi-Coleman certainly does so with […]

Another Ilona Andrews series has stolen my heart

Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews

White Hot by Ilona Andrews

Wildfire by Ilona Andrews

Diamond Fire by Ilona Andrews

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I discovered Ilona Andrews through Felicia Day’s book club. We read the first Kate Daniels book, Magic Bites. I didn’t quite get hooked, but Cannonball Read made me want to read more. Thanks to Malin, Emmalita, and Jen K for convincing me. I know you didn’t have to twist my arm! I had always planned to read their Hidden Legacy series. I even bought the most recent book last year. It wasn’t until Malin gifted me the first two books for the CBR12 book exchange that […]

If You Aren’t Reading Ilona Andrews, You Should Be.

Emerald Blaze by Ilona Andrews

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I read this MONTHS ago and now I’m going to try to write a review, but there are two important things: If you have read Emerald Blaze, please join me in a squee for how excellent this was. I am so looking forward to the next book, even though it has been delayed because it’s hard to be creative when the world is falling apart. If you have not read Emerald Blaze, I assume you haven’t read the Hidden Legacies series and I must ask, whhhhyyyyyyyyy not? If […]



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