Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Teenagers, ammirite?

No Place Like Oz (Dorothy Must Die Prequel #1) by Danielle Paige

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This is the backstory on Dorothy after she spent her first time in Oz wanting nothing more than to return to Kansas and then spent her time back in Kansas wanting nothing more than to return to Oz. We begin with Dorothy’s infamous (at least to her) 16th birthday party, and are reminded how terrible teenagers are, no matter what universe or timeline you are in. Then Dorothy mysteriously returns to Oz and unfortunately brings Toto, her Aunt Em, and uncle Henry with her. I […]

Is Dorothy dead yet? It’s book 3 of 4 so…

Yellow Brick War (Dorothy Must Die series book #3) by Danielle Paige

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I gotta tell you, this book seems more like a vehicle to get from book 2 to book 4. I don’t really remember much about it except that Amy has returned to Flat Hill Kansas and is looking for the first pair of Dorothy’s magic shoes (apparently the ruby slippers were her second pair that Glinda used to bring her back to Kansas after returning home). Amy has returned to her mother, who seems to be doing better without her, but is eager to make […]

I still don’t get what a nome is…

The End of Oz (Dorothy Must Die book #4) by Danielle Paige

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This is the fourth and final installment of the Dorothy Must Die series. The first three books are dark in their own right, but this book feels a little more so. In book 4, we travel to Ev, land of the Nome King. I’m not familiar with the original Oz books, but if you are familiar with the difference between The Wizard of Oz movie and the sequel Return to Oz, that is the change of pace to which I’m referring. Remember the wheelers? Yeah, […]

Monkeys and unicorns, and monsters, oh my!

The Wicked Will Rise (Dorothy Must Die book #2) by Danielle Paige

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This is an example of where the second installment is better than the first. If you aren’t familiar with the Dorothy Must Die series of books, you can read my review of book 1 here. Basically, this is the second book in the Dorothy Must Die series, which tells the story of Amy Gumm, a teenager from Flat Hills Kansas, who finds herself whisked away to Oz. Amy discovers Dorothy is real, and has transformed Oz into a magical wasteland and ruled with an iron fist. […]

Tom Joad needs a bath

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

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“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath have stored…” Were you oblivious like me that these were the words in the first line of the Battle Hymn of the Republic? I’m not sure if these are the same grapes Steinbeck is referring to, but there is enough wrath in the world to go around, whether it’s the wrath of the Union army during the Civil War or the wrath […]

One of my year’s best already?

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

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This historic drama has all the elements I love about a book – great characters and a compelling story that we follow through several generations of the same family, from Korea to Japan and beyond. In the background of Pachinko is Japan’s occupation of Korea and the experience of Koreans in Japan before, during, and after this occupation. We begin in the 1880s in Korea. Hoonie is the son of parents who run a boardinghouse for fisherman. Their lives are meager, but stable. Hoonie eventually […]



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