Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Refusing to conform to stereotypical gender norms on two different continents

My Name is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende

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3.5 stars Thanks to Netgalley and RandomHouse for this ARC. My opinions are my own. Emilia del Valle Claro grows up in San Francisco in the latter half of the 19th Century. Her mother, Molly, is of Irish descent and was a nun before she was seduced by an unscrupulous young Chilean aristocrat, who left her pregnant and entirely without support (she obviously had to leave the convent). She married Francisco Claro, the intelligent and kind-hearted teacher at the Aztec Pride School, and he’s the […]

“For the one you love? Anything. You unmake the world and build a new one. You do anything to give them what they need.”

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

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4.5 stars CBR17 Bingo: G (A book title starting with G)   After months of online research, Alice Scott has tracked down the reclusive former tabloid darling Margaret Ives and hopes to persuade the woman to let Alice write her biography. Imagine the unpleasant surprise for Alice when it turns out that Margaret might not want to tell her life’s story at all, and she basically wants to ‘audition’ Alice and another writer for the next month, before she makes up her mind. That other […]

Diving In Too Deep

Submersed: Wonder, Obsession, and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines by Matthew Gavin Frank

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Before the murder of journalist Kim Wall by inventor Peter Madsen hit international headlines, few had heard of the world of amateur submarines, a small but obsessive group chasing the chance to go ever deeper. Like the author, I am very claustrophobic, and deeply suspicious of deep water, so of course the stories of spelunkers and divers fascinate me. And while I remember following the story of Kim Wall’s murder as it unfolded in the news, I didn’t follow it all the way until the […]

Thoughts of Home

The Flavors of Iraq: Impressions of My Vanished Homeland by Feurat Alani and Léonard Cohen

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The old “I was looking at my saved online reader links” comes into play with how I found The Flavors of Iraq: Impressions of My Vanished Homeland by Feurat Alani and Léonard Cohen.  I saw that it was the only one in that email (how I save the links) and figured it was a sign to read it. From May 2024, the history I grew up with comes back into play. However, instead of seeing it from an American or Western point of view, we […]

Frankie is the Gal with the Pals!

Frankie and Friends: The Big Protest by Christine Platt

Frankie and Friends: The Lost Tooth by Christine Platt

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One of the main things I like about Frankie and Friends: The Big Protest by Christine Platt is that things are presented in a kid friendly way. By using the journalistic approach (which is described) we are able to see how such things as “big news” is carried out. And this accessible language (with a glossary of the highlighted words) allows us as kids (aged six/seven to read to, eight/nine to read solo) and adults to have a neat read and learn about not only […]

Perils of Journalism

I Am On the Hit List: A Journalist's Murder and the Rise of Autocracy in India by Rollo Romig

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Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: Bollywood. This is a true crime novel about a journalist in India who was murdered, as well as the uniqueness of south Indian culture and the autocratic rule of Modi. Despite it being one of the largest countries in the world, I know very little about India. I knew Britain treated it like garbage for centuries and that, thanks in part to Gandhi, it won its freedom in 1947. I knew that there are tensions between Hindus and Muslims. […]



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