Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Shay had always had one of those faces meant for smiling. Not every face was meant for smiling but Shay’s was one of them.”

In a Jam by Kate Canterbary

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3.5 stars CBR17 Bingo: I (A book title beginning with I) Official plot summary: When Shay Zucconi’s step-grandmother died, she left Shay a tulip farm—under two conditions. First, Shay has to move home to the small town of Friendship, Rhode Island. Second—and most problematic, since her fiancé just called off the wedding—Shay must be married within one year. Marriage is the last thing in the world Shay wants but she’ll do anything to save the only real home she’s ever known. Noah Barden loved Shay […]

“We’ll continue to hurt others and be hurt in the future too. And one day, something even worse might happen…We have a chance to change things for the better. If we raise a smart and courageous child.”

A Smart and Courageous Child by Miki Yamamoto

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It’s always thrilling to me to see a publisher trying something new, and Tokyopop publishing A Smart and Courageous Child strikes me as a bold move. They are not usually the publisher you expect to do literary manga, and finding this in the bookstore made my day. I am constantly pining for American publishers to translate more manga like this, aimed at adults and dealing with everyday life. There’s so much manga in Japan that is probably never going to get translated here, so anything […]

Woman, Mother, Interpreter, Spy

A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe

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I knew early on this was not going to be the book I expected and I mean that in a complimentary sense. I thought this would be a cozy-esque female housewife in the 50s using her wiles to navigate Manhattan cocktail parties and deduce who may or may not be a Soviet sympathizer. There’s nothing cozy about this, however. It’s a raw, intriguing look at the perils of motherhood for women in the 1950s, with a spy story tacked on in the background. The espionage […]

Mom and Me…

I Wish I Could Say "Thank You" by Yukari Takinami

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After reading GentleRain’s review of I Wish I Could Say “Thank You” by Yukari Takinami, I researched and found that while my bookstore could order me a copy, I decided that I would go the interlibrary loan route. I figured I could purchase a copy if I enjoyed it at a later time. And I probably will do that, but instead of keeping it for myself, I will donate it to my local library. I think others might be interested in this not easy to […]

Darkest moments and hope

Finding the Light: A Mother's Journey from Trauma to Healing  by Marian Henley

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I received an email a few days ago, with eight online reader links to books coming out from March 2024 to May 2024. One of those titles was Finding the Light: A Mother’s Journey from Trauma to Healing by Marian Henley. At first I thought it was another older title, as the covers were similar, but then I noticed it was not due early March 2024. Now, I have said my reading for 2024 is to be fun, well there really is nothing fun about this love letter to […]

To be or not to be is a very personal question

I Don’t Want to Be a Mom by Irene Olmo

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When I saw the title of this graphic novel by Irene Olmo, I Don’t Want to Be a Mom I assumed a few things. The first, due to the cover  (which I thought was a young girl who did not want to grow up to be a mom), was that she was a trans man. But then I thought she was a lesbian and had some wrong idea they do not become mothers. Or even that she was asexual, had a bad mother herself, or […]



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