Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Choosing What We Care About

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

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My sister is going through a difficult time, and because books always make me feel better, I went looking for a self-help book that I thought she would like. I stumbled across The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, and mostly because of its catchy title, I decided to give it a whirl. I honestly didn’t think it would be as good as the ‘bestseller’ sticker purported, but I was pleasantly surprised. The Subtle Art feels like a giant demotivational poster for all the […]

Read the author bio on the back as well

Welcome: A Mo Willems Guide for New Arrivals by Mo Willems

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Seriously, I know many adults who could use Welcome: A Mo Willems Guide for New Arrivals. Classic Willems humor falls off each page (wait, that was me and my chair …) I read several pages out loud (and one reading dealt with the poop page. Shocking, I know. Me finding poop funny…) This introduction to the world tells us there will be cats (well, the book has a drawing of a cat, but the narrator tells the listener that there will be real cats, too). […]

Sorry the image is blurry, but it kinda fits the book….

I Left the House Today! by Cassandra Calin

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I Left the House Today! declares Cassandra Calin. Yet, if she leaves too often, she will only have about half of what she writes about in this delightful little book. Of course, sometimes she must be dragged out there blinking and wondering what is going on, but regardless of if she is in or out, she always has something to say. In Calin’s relatable comics of everyday issues humor, pain and reality are put into (no more than four) panels. Calin talks leg hair, parents […]

When the Bully is the Hero, the Girl is in love with a God and there are spaceships up your nose.

Animal Crackers by Gene Luen Yang

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Gene Luen Yang can write the instructions to how to make a sandwich and I would read it. That does not mean I will love it, but I will always appreciate it. And Animal Crackers is in that category. I was not jumping up and down about it, and even with a second reading (although a bit of a quick one) and being able to put together a few more pieces I missed the first time, I still did not love this graphic novel. This […]

The Book Thief – an absolutely beautiful story

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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I am late to the party, I admit it. This book has been out for a long time, won many awards, and even been turned into a film (which I plan on watching this weekend). Yet I had not read it until very recently. That is my loss, because this novel is fabulous. Usually, one can categorize a book pretty clearly, but not in this case. Yes, Death is the narrator here and there are descriptions of souls but does that make it fantasy? Nah. […]

I for one, welcome our new fungus overlords

Cold Storage by David Koepp

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There’s a lot of theory about what various monsters represent about our collective fears. Obviously we have Frankenstein’s monster as a representation of science without morality or consideration for the outcome of their tinkering. Godzilla was the modern version of that with a nuclear twist. Vampires are black mirrors of seduction; Wolfmen are cautions against reverting to our primal nature. And, of course, zombies. Zombies are so ripe for metaphorical interpretation, from concerns about consumerism (hey there Romero) to a concern that others aren’t who […]



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