Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Boy: Part Two

The Boy From Clearwater: Book Two by Yu Pei-Yun, Jian-Xin Zhou and Lin King

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About a month or so ago I read The Boy From Clearwater: Book One by Yu Pei-Yun, Jian-Xin Zhou and Lin King (Translator). At the time I didn’t think I would go onto book two, The Boy From Clearwater: Book Two, but something said I should and located an interlibrary loan copy from my local library.  Usually sequels are not as strong as the first book, but while I feel the first book was stronger in many aspects, this second book has strong pieces of […]

The historical and personal flood of events that lead a woman to find herself

Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls

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Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls is an intense read, with several triggers. It is not meant for the sensitive reader, or someone who is just starting graphic novels. The style of illustrations are both what makes and breaks things. The black and white gives the tone but everything can blend together, especially when the author uses words as the illustrations or within the actual image. A few fourth wall breaks can stop the flow of stories, but overall this is an interesting […]

Meaningful conversations

Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire by Jehad Abusalim

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Full disclosure, I did not finish Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire edited by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing and Mike Merryman-Lotze. I did read a few of the essays in full, a few I skimmed and one was mostly read. There are around five or so poems, but they did not “pop” for me.  There are a handful of  photographs and each essay covers events, detailed facts and much more. It is a technical read a lot of the time. While the publisher’s description […]

Hail To the President

Brave Volodymyr: The Story of Volodymyr Zelensky and the Fight for Ukraine by Linda Elovitz Marshall

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After reading the chapter book about ghosts, I found a book about Volodymyr Zelensky. I figured you cannot get farther apart in subjects, so it was the perfect next read.  Now, I will say that while I enjoyed Brave Volodymyr: The Story of Volodymyr Zelensky and the Fight for Ukraine, it is slanted. The start of this picture book was telling us in the most poetic manner how beautiful the Ukrainian flag is. How magnificent. How proud the people of Ukraine are of it. Now, […]

“What sort of man would wish to murder the president of another land? None but a barbarian.”

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

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CBR15 BINGO: Politics, because it addresses U.S. and Belgian involvement in the Congo In 1959, evangelical Baptist preacher Nathan Price takes the word of God to the Belgian Congo, bringing his wife and four daughters with him. Though the mission is supposed to last one year, the family’s stay is extended through the sheer stubbornness and bad judgment of their patriarch and, while the novel spans 30+ years, the majority of it takes place in the few years that Price is actively proselytizing in a […]

Second time is a charm

Nimona by N.D Stevenson

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I first read Nimona by N.D Stevenson in 2019 (but my version had their dead name). My main takeaway from this recent read was how the theme itself has not changed, but our perceptions of it might have. I know mine did. I didn’t even know what a dead name was four years ago. It would never have occurred to me that it is harmful to misgender or dead-name someone. In those few years, a lot has happened, and I hope I have grown past […]



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