Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Swining Sixties

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

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Yeah, I made a typo, but it’s staying. London, 1967. Bass player Dean Moss is flat-out broke, homeless, and ready to give up on his dreams and head back home to find some dreary menial job for the rest of his life, when he meets a music producer named Levon. Levon hasn’t had much luck so far and this is his last stab at success, so he sets Dean up with folk singer and pianist Elf (short for Elizabeth Frances), drummer Griff and guitarist Jasper. […]

Getting the beat

Garvey's Choice: The Graphic Novel by Nikki Grimes

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Recently, Garvey’s Choice: The Graphic Novel by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Theodore Taylor III found itself on my reading pile again. However, I was a few pages in before I realized I had read it before. It was funny how a book that I had enjoyed had been forgotten, but even though I had plenty of other things to read, it felt like a good idea to read again instead of moving onto something else. This reading allowed the story to become a bit […]

Bowing down to pressure

Camp Prodigy by Caroline Palmer

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What do you do when you’ve a two week vacation and you’re tired of playing games on your phone? You find the stack of books you have and start reading. And one of those books was Camp Prodigy by Caroline Palmer.   I’ll start with that it is a fun, modern coming of age story that deals with GLBTQ issues and the pressures we put on ourselves versus just “having fun” when we are doing things that we should/could enjoy.  I will then go on to […]

The Autobiography of a Narcissistic Psychopath

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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Coriolanus Snow’s only way to rebuild his family’s legacy is to have his tribute make a good showing in the 10th Hunger Games. But when he starts to become interested in Lucy Gray, he wonders if it might be possible for her to actually win them. I put off reading this book for a long time, scared off by mixed reviews from other fans of the Hunger Games series. It’s certainly a different type of story, but I ended up appreciating this new perspective into […]

There are two types of people in the world: people who like heavy metal, and dicks

A History of Heavy Metal by Andrew O'Neill

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Okay I knew this is right up my alley when I heard that. This is one of the more entertaining audiobooks I have listened to this year. Not only is Andrew O’Neill a very colourful and energetic writer, he’s also an excellent narrator with an almost limitless amount of enthusiasm for the subject at hand. Metalheads are an argumentative lot that love being contrarian and are more than eager to split into separate little sub-cultures at the drop of a hat. They are a broad, […]

Piano player, meet piano maker

What Music!: The Fifty-year Friendship between Beethoven and Nannette Streicher, Who Built His Pianos by Laurie Lawlor

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Though available, read What Music!: The Fifty-year Friendship between Beethoven and Nannette Streicher, Who Built His Pianos via an online reader copy. Laurie Lawlor created a story that is more on the friendship and Beethoven’s life than the actual pianos Streicher built. It is an interesting look into their lives, through an outlet not usually used. While you might learn a few new things about Streicher, overall, there might not be a lot of new for Beethoven. This picture book is not to be considered […]



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