Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Different tune, same story

Battle of the Bands by Eric Smith and Lauren Gibaldi

September 5, 2023 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

There’s a thing that happens when you totally crush out on someone. It’s like you can feel your heartbeat in every part of your body. There’s a euphoric kind of excitement mixed with sadness and terror. It’s hard to explain, but it happens in an instant and then just explodes and grows from there, consuming your every waking thought and sometimes your dreams. You can’t escape from it. It takes over and runs the controls that make you . . . you. Suddenly, you aren’t […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: Ashley Poston, Ashley Woodfolk, brittany cavallaro, cbr15bingo, coming out, Eric Smith and Lauren Gibaldi, high school, high school band, high school shenanigans, Jasmine Warga, jay coles, Jeff Zentner, Jennifer Marie Thorne, Jenny Torres Sanchez, Justin Courtney Pierre, Katie Cotugno, musicians, pining, Preeti Chhibber, rock music, Sarah Nicole Smetana, Sarvenaz Taghavian, Shaun David Hutchinson, teenage angst, teenage years

carmelpie's CBR15 Review No:40 · Genres: Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: Ashley Poston, Ashley Woodfolk, brittany cavallaro, cbr15bingo, coming out, Eric Smith and Lauren Gibaldi, high school, high school band, high school shenanigans, Jasmine Warga, jay coles, Jeff Zentner, Jennifer Marie Thorne, Jenny Torres Sanchez, Justin Courtney Pierre, Katie Cotugno, musicians, pining, Preeti Chhibber, rock music, Sarah Nicole Smetana, Sarvenaz Taghavian, Shaun David Hutchinson, teenage angst, teenage years ·
Rating:
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“I have learned that sometimes the simplest things are the hardest things to say. That sometimes there is no word for what you feel, no word in any language.”

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

November 20, 2021 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

I read Jasmine Warga’s debut My Heart and Other Black Holes in 2016, and its one of the books that has stayed with me most as it contained some of the truest descriptions of being a teenager that I have ever read. When I was hunting for a book to fulfill the Muslim Middle Grade novel task for the Reading Women challenge and came across Warga’s name I decided that Other Words for Home would be the book I read, without looking any further into […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: immigrant experience, Jasmine Warga, Middle Grades, Muslim, Other Words for Home, read harder challenge, read women, we need diverse books

faintingviolet's CBR13 Review No:59 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: immigrant experience, Jasmine Warga, Middle Grades, Muslim, Other Words for Home, read harder challenge, read women, we need diverse books ·
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The language we say and don’t say

The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga

March 15, 2021 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

The Shape of Thunder is a 3.5 rating instead of a three or four (I am not sure what I will put as my rating officially as I’m writing out a draft before posting). This is because I was looking for “something” that never came about in this Jasmine Warga middle grade reader (around ages 10 to 14, but younger (and older) could read). The story alternates chapters with the two main characters, Cora and Quinn. They were best friends until “the event” and Cora […]

Filed Under: Children's Books, Fiction, Health, Young Adult Tagged With: family, friendship, Jasmine Warga, siblings, Social Themes

BlackRaven's CBR13 Review No:115 · Genres: Children's Books, Fiction, Health, Young Adult · Tags: family, friendship, Jasmine Warga, siblings, Social Themes ·
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When a book finds you

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

May 31, 2019 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

While I immensely enjoyed Other Words for Home ’s book did not “hit me in the face, turned me around and kick me in the butt.” I think what I was looking for was more of the current events mentioned (such as which bombing Jude was mentioning) and maybe more interacting with Jude and her cousin. Since Warga mentions in the afterward she had a personality more like the cousins than Jude growing up, Warga would be the perfect vessel to show both sides of […]

Filed Under: Children's Books, Fiction, Poetry, Young Adult Tagged With: Emigration & Immigration, Jasmine Warga, Middle East, People & Places, story in verse

BlackRaven's CBR11 Review No:199 · Genres: Children's Books, Fiction, Poetry, Young Adult · Tags: Emigration & Immigration, Jasmine Warga, Middle East, People & Places, story in verse ·
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This is a book about a teenage girl planning her suicide. It’s a tough book to read so beware.

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

April 5, 2019 by badkittyuno Leave a Comment

The further I get into my reviews for the year, the more I realize just how much YA I read! This is another example of just how very grown up YA can be. When I was an actual young adult, I was reading Stephen King and Dean Koontz and Robin Cooke. Now that I’m an adult adult, I wonder if YA was this good in the 90s. If not, well…you youths better be grateful. “Anyone who has actually been that sad can tell you that there’s […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: Jasmine Warga

badkittyuno's CBR11 Review No:29 · Genres: Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: Jasmine Warga ·
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The Darkness Inside Us

February 28, 2016 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

My Heart and Other Black Holes is the debut novel from Jasmine Warga from last year. It is a YA novel that deals with two depressed protagonists in some of the truest descriptions of being a teenager with depression that I have ever read. This is a good book, but probably not for everyone. I was alerted to this book’s existence by the five star review from Annie for Cannonball Read 7. While she and I agree on some points, I only rated this book […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: depressions, faintingviolet, Jasmine Warga, My Heart and Other Black Holes, suicide, YA

faintingviolet's CBR8 Review No:16 · Genres: Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: depressions, faintingviolet, Jasmine Warga, My Heart and Other Black Holes, suicide, YA ·
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Recent Comments

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  • Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
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