Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Okay, I think I’m really done with Riordan after this series is over. I’m serious this time.

The Tyrant's Tomb (The Trials of Apollo, #4) by Rick Riordan

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And we’re back down to being pretty mediocre. It was much, much better in the second half, but I just really think this entire premise is both tired and flawed. In fact, that’s mostly what I want to talk about in this review, the overall series premise and style, but I do want to talk a little about this actual installment first. So, this is the fourth and penultimate book in this series. Apollo and Meg have arrived at the Roman camp, and it turns […]

The concept is better than the execution

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

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Official book description: The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away. This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all […]

Feelings, free will, and a robot adventure: CBR Bingo – Two heads are better than one, Bingo!

Cog by Greg Van Eekhout

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Completing the “Two heads are better than one” square fulfills my bingo column, “Cannonballer Says” to “Remix”, and gives me my first bingo!  I used my “Reader’s Choice” to replace “Remix” with “Classic”. Dome’Loki Greg van Eekhout is a local San Diego author who frequently does events at my favorite independent bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy.  He writes for both adult and middle grade audiences.  Greg’s two most recent books are middle grade and as a result, it has been great fun to take my kids with […]

Lyrical historical coming of age fiction

Red Dove, Listen to the Wind by Sonia Antaki

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Thirteen year old Red Dove lives in interesting times for the Lakota people. Shortly after the Battle of the Greasy Grass (Battle of Little Big Horn), her people have fallen on hard times. Food has become scarce, and the Lakota have learned that they cannot trust the people who have settled on their lands to live peacefully. In a moment of weakness, Red Dove’s mother agrees to send her children to a local Catholic school, hoping that the children will at least find regular meals […]

And a road trip to finish the Bingo Board!

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

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CBR11Bingo – Travel! Coyote Sunrise and her father Rodeo live an unconventional lifestyle. Tried and true hippies, they drive round the country as the wind takes them on a repurposed school bus which acts as both home and transport. Sometimes they drive toward their favorite sandwich shop in the Bayou, or maybe they’re assisting a fellow traveler they found stranded. It’s been this way for five years – because five years ago, Coyote’s mother and sisters were killed in a car accident. And leaving home […]

Bingo #4

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

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In an effort to read some spooky literature for this, the high holy season of Halloween, I went for one of my comfortable standbys, good old Neil Gaiman. Winning both the Hugo and the Nebula awards in 2003 and 2004 for best novella, Coraline deserves all the acclaim it received. Clocking in at only a little over 100 pages, Gaiman works his magic to build a terrifying little universe in a short space. Even though this book was in the children’s section of my library, […]



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