Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Bite-sized sorcery and sunshine

GMorning, GNight! little pep talks for me & you by Lin-Manuel Miranda

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I wanted my first read of this year, and my first CBR11 review, to be of Gmorning Gnight for a lot of reasons: Because I don’t know about you, but I could use some pep talks.  Because Lin-Manuel defines happiness to me, seems like maybe he’s a sorcerer, and somehow manages to elevate even tweets to an artform.  Because the illustrations of Jonny Sun shine with a Silverstein-ian simplicity that radiate glee and grace.   Because “its nice to have things to hold on to, some […]

The wise sense what is to come

The Collected Poems of C.P. Cavafy: A New Translation by C.P. Cavafy

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I know very little about poetry and even less about how to write about poetry, so to quote Prince, forgive me if this goes astray. I first heard of Cavafy when I was browsing through a book of gay love poems at Barnes and Noble back in my early twenties when I was first coming out. The simplicity of the poem made me think he was an ancient, perhaps the male equivalent of Sappho, but when I found this book, The Collected Poems of C.P. […]

“but safe in sound you’ll go to sleep”

Nighttime Symphony by Timbaland

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I almost did not write a review for Nighttime Symphony by Timbaland, Christopher Myers and Kaa Illustration. As this picture book (out May 2019) is one of the books that make me think/say, “Book good. Read.” Of course, the Tarzan mentality only gets you so far. The review needs to talk about the story: The sounds of the city lull a baby to sleep. Of course, they are loud sounds, soft sounds, unique sounds to the city. The father is telling, in lyrical text, this […]

A better read with more knowledge of Russian/Soviet Culture

Portraits without Frames by Lev Ozerov

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The free verse poems do seem to do what the title of the book suggests – draw a portrait of the various artists, authors, poets, dancers and so on without using paint. I would have enjoyed it more if I knew who more of the artists were. I also wish there had been a bit more historical notes – considering how many of those dealt with in the book were killed on Night of the Murdered Poets maybe explaining that event say.   However, in […]

“Men of action, above all those whose actions are guided by love, live forever.” – Jose Marti

The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya

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Arturo Zamora and his family are tight — and I mean the whole family.  He and his extended family all live in the same apartment complex. The heart of the family is his Abuela, who still manages her restaurant “La Cocina” which she and her late husband opened when they emigrated here from Cuba. Her daughter is the master chef, but Abuela makes her daily rounds, greeting every customer — and her love and attentiveness is half the reason the restaurant is always packed (the […]

CBR11 #3 – Fat Girl Finishing School by Rachel Wiley

Fat Girl Finishing School by Rachel Wiley

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In which Siege tracks down some older work by a new favorite poet, with mixed reviews.    Important takeaway: Buy Rachel Wiley’s books so she can give up her day job to spend her time writing amazing poems and touring the country performing them for people.



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