Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I wish we didn’t need books like this

Stolen Colors: A Story About Body Safety and Consent by Patel Khushboo and Tara Anand

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The due in March 2026 picture book, Stolen Colors: A Story About Body Safety and Consent by Patel Khushboo with Tara Anand’s illustrations was read via an online reader copy. And it was another WOW book. Which thankfully I have had a lot of recently as I was on a slow slump on not loving the books I was reading. We start off with a young girl who loves to paint, but that is taken away from her when her teacher assaults her. We follow […]

Death in the Pines

Trespasser by Paul Doiron

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CBR17 Work The thing to know about Maine is that the lower Atlantic coast bit is gorgeous.  Portland to Bar Harbor and all the little towns in between, at least in the summer?  There was a reason that all the money folk would spend the season here.  But go up the coast past Bar Harbor for a bit, and it’s a whole other state.  Still a few vacation homes, but a lot more hard-scrabble living, and there is nothing wrong with some road-kill venison. This […]

Over 700 words and I didn’t say what I wanted to

Silence, Full Stop: A Memoir by Karina Shor

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WARNING: several trigger moments. When you get about a third of the way into a book and you know if you like it or not is an odd sensation. But a helpful one. Afterall, if you really really do not like it, you can stop and nothing is really lost. And if you like it, you can continue and nothing is lost but mostly it’s all gain. But what about that book (it might be rare) but you don’t like anything but you don’t hate […]

Danielle’s Story

The Courage Party: Helping Our Resilient Children Understand and Survive Sexual Assault by Joyce Brabner

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TRIGGER WARNING (including but not limited to): talk of Sexual Assault on a minor; other sexual assaults; frank language    A few weeks ago, I started a sad, but interesting, book. It’s about a child (Danielle) who was sexually assaulted by an older boy. But that’s just the start. Because her guardian, Joyce, has always been honest with her; told her how to act in situations, especially this one; she is able to fight and run off. And unlike many stories like this, our young […]

Why didn’t this place have an elevator? A magical one full of morphine.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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She could hear Darlington’s voice in her head: When was the first time you saw them? Low and halting, as if he wasn’t sure whether the question was taboo. But the real question, the right question, was: When was the first time you knew to be afraid? Alex was glad he’d never had the sense to ask. ― Leigh Bardugo, Ninth House Ninth house refers to Lethe house, the watchers and keepers over the magic practices of the “Ancient Eight” houses, or magical societies at […]

Holiday Reads: Alsatian Edition

Mortal Causes (Inspector Rebus #6) by Ian Rankin

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

Perfect Silence (DI Callanach #4) by Helen Fields

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Vacationing with young children is hard work, people, even if you’re on a campsite that has not one, but two trampolines (“mum, see what I can do!”). Nevertheless I managed to sneak in a couple of books as I hung about in the (beautiful and very hot) Alsatian countryside, so here goes.  Mortal Causes (Ian Rankin) *** Mortal Causes is Inspector Rebus book no. 6 and though I’ve read the previous five, I had to look that up. I also forgot what it was about […]



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