Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Cleaning up the forest and your thoughts

No Ivy League by Hazel Newlevant

January 17, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

No Ivy League by Hazel Newlevant was not what I expected from what I had read about it and the cover. Hazel’s story is a coming of age story, which is not a new theme. However, the way Newlevant presents it feels fresh. The graphic novel has an odd cover look to it. First it looks like it is going to be about a middle schooler or young highschooler, but for the middle school age. But then it looks more teen and for the 15 […]

Filed Under: Biography/Memoir, Featured, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Health, Romance, Young Adult Tagged With: coming-of-age, friendship, Hazel Newlevant, homeschooling, Oregon, Portland, privilege, Race relations, Racism

BlackRaven's CBR17 Review No:7 · Genres: Biography/Memoir, Featured, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Health, Romance, Young Adult · Tags: coming-of-age, friendship, Hazel Newlevant, homeschooling, Oregon, Portland, privilege, Race relations, Racism ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

“When you get older, you may never have anyone sing to you personally again, but go all over the world and I bet you can’t find one baby that has never been sung to.”

The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry

February 12, 2023 by GentleRain Leave a Comment

Lynda Barry’s other near-perfect YA novel, The Good Times Are Killing Me, marks my completing re-reading her non comics work, as I read and reviewed Cruddy last year. I do think Cruddy is a singular work of genius, but this novel is a close second and one that I find deeply moving and beautiful. It’s a short book, only 131 pages, but Barry manages to pack a lot of emotion and layered, thoughtful commentary on growing up, friendship, systemic societal racism, and the power of […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: coming of age novel, growing up/coming of age, Lynda Barry, music, Race relations, Racism

GentleRain's CBR15 Review No:10 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: coming of age novel, growing up/coming of age, Lynda Barry, music, Race relations, Racism ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

“She was right, it would just be another box. It was going to be just another box for him, too, but he’d figured it out. You didn’t get out of one box without getting into another, and you didn’t get out of one box without getting into another, and you didn’t get out without it costing you. “

The Runner (Tillerman Cycle #4) by Cynthia Voigt

December 28, 2021 by cheerbrarian Leave a Comment

The fourth in the series, this book follows Dicey’s uncle and Samuel’s namesake Bullet (with the moniker he had given himself) in his final year of high school. At this point in family history, the eldest brother has already gotten out of the house, and Liza (Dicey and sibling’s mother) has also left, leaving Bullet behind to fend for himself. He cares little for school, little for anyone really, aside from Patrice who he works for crabbing and oystering. With the onset of the Vietnam […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: 1960s, Cynthia Voigt, New England, Race relations, Tillerman Cycle, Vietnam era

cheerbrarian's CBR13 Review No:54 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: 1960s, Cynthia Voigt, New England, Race relations, Tillerman Cycle, Vietnam era ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Varied Love in Space

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

July 17, 2020 by CoffeeShopReader 1 Comment

Bingo Review 5: Cannonballer Says Still going totally out of order from the plan, and there is/was a written out plan, but this time it’s because of the timing of something coming into my local library. Anyways, I decided to request The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet because it had been an option for the June 2020 bookclub (also apparently in 2018) and some of the discussion comments made it sound interesting. It’s gotten somewhat mixed reviews by Cannonballers, but at least one […]

Filed Under: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: #Science Fiction, Becky Chambers, cbr12bingo, gender, LGBTQ, Race relations, Romance, space opera, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

CoffeeShopReader's CBR12 Review No:62 · Genres: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: #Science Fiction, Becky Chambers, cbr12bingo, gender, LGBTQ, Race relations, Romance, space opera, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

Get out your drapes and rumba

Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots by Margarita Engle

May 3, 2019 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Get out your drapes and start to jump, leap and swing to the beat! You will Rumba the night away! Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots by Margarita Engle is a prose poetry book that reads like a novel. Each character (and there are several, some named and some just their occupation) has a story to tell about California in the early years of the Untied States time in World War Two. American born sisters, 16-year-old Marisela and 14-year-old Lorena just want […]

Filed Under: Fiction, History, Poetry, Young Adult Tagged With: 20th century his, california, Dance, Los Angeles history, Margarita Engle, Race relations, Racism, Rudy Gutierrez, Zoot Suit Riots

BlackRaven's CBR11 Review No:150 · Genres: Fiction, History, Poetry, Young Adult · Tags: 20th century his, california, Dance, Los Angeles history, Margarita Engle, Race relations, Racism, Rudy Gutierrez, Zoot Suit Riots ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Mirrors that don’t reflect reality

December 29, 2018 by teresaelectro 3 Comments

I received Boy, Snow, Bird from an earlier CBR book exchange, but it had been collecting dust for a few years. I finally had a reason to pick it back up when my Mocha Girls Read book club selected it for a fairytale’s retold theme. Helen Oyeyemi’s novel is a VERY loose version of Snow White set in the 1950s. Boy Novak runs away to a small town to escape her abusive father. She meets a man named Arturo who isn’t quite a prince, but he […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: 1950s, book club read, Boy Snow Bird, fairy tale retelling, Helen Oyeyemi, magical realism, mirrors, Race, Race relations, snow white fairy tale

teresaelectro's CBR10 Review No:14 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: 1950s, book club read, Boy Snow Bird, fairy tale retelling, Helen Oyeyemi, magical realism, mirrors, Race, Race relations, snow white fairy tale ·
Rating:
· 3 Comments
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