Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind small

Zanzara by Gloria Vitanza Basile

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Born in poverty and raised in a squalid orphanage, Phaedra’s life transforms completely when her identity as a prince’s illegitimate daughter is revealed, vaunting her into the lap of luxury. But she has a long, tough path to tread still before she will reach her happy ending. I really, really love the crazy bloody bodice rippers of the 1970s and 80s. They are always wild and adventurous, often with a strong historical grounding, and take you careening through the kind of heroine’s journey that leave […]

Do Re Mi excited to tell you about this book

The First Notes: The Story of Do, Re, Mi by Julie Andrews

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I know one thing about music: what I like and what I don’t like. And, granted that can be eclectic (Jim Byrnes anyone? How about Queen? Elvis? Ella? Bowie? Fraggles?) But I never thought about the “how to” of it. After all, why bother? I knew I liked it, but why should I learn about Do, Re, Mi? It’s just a silly song in a fun musical movie right?  Well, yes, but it’s a lot more, too. While I still do not know a lot […]

Interactive board books around the world

Bruno Builder Bakes Bread (Mix-And-Match). by Nelleke Verhoeff

Our World: Brazil by Ana Siqueira

Our World: Italy by Francesca Di Marzo

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I like the company Barefoot Books. And I have a book dealer there. She sends me some finished copies. I like her. A lot. And this time she sent me three new board books. Two are from the Our Worlds series, and one is a standalone interactive book. Starting with the interactive book, Bruno Builder Bakes Bread (Mix-And-Match). The traditional board book sized book is split in the middle. It has the Builder on top and on the bottom a bakers stand with bread being […]

But they told so many lies this title doesn’t make sense!

All the Lies They Did Not Tell by Pablo Trincia

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The tag line of this book was “The true story of Satanic Panic in an Italian community”. I’m not sure it’s called a tag line, but cut me some slack. It’s the words under the title, and my poor tired brain can’t remember what that’s called! The tag line (or whatever!) should’ve been “The probably made up story of a bunch of kids who said their parents molested them and did semi-Satanic things”. I was not satisfied with the conclusion of this book. It’s literally […]

We are the World

Our World: Italy by Francesca Di Marzo

Our World: Mexico by Cynthia Harmony

Our World: Brazil by Ana Siqueira

Our World: India by Meera Sriram

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Our World: Italy by Francesca Di Marzo, Our World: Mexico by Cynthia Harmony, Our World: Brazil by Ana Siqueira and Our World: India by Meera Sriram have two things in common. The first, they are awesome books and second, they are about the world aimed at the young reader/listener.  Some are already published, while others are coming within the next few months. The stories follow the culture, language and more in a small format. The authors and illustrators (while the illustrations are similar to each […]

“We are writing to each other. On paper. Because paper is kind of my thing.”

Looks Good on Paper by Kilby Blades

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CBR14Bingo – Holiday: Zuri takes a six week vacation to Europe to explore various stationary stores. I was in the mood for a quick cute rom-com, and this book certainly delivered. A penpal romance with a dash of travel and some craftiness, this book hit a lot of the right notes for me. “We are writing to each other. On paper. Because paper is kind of my thing.” Zuri may be underpaid and unrecognized at her job – customer service for an online dating app called […]



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