Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“We were teen girls. Look up the word “blasé” in Merriam-Webster’s and you’d find a picture of us, our eyes burning through your soul from the page.”

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

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My Cannonball Read holiday gift exchange buddy got me this book (thank you!!!) and if they picked it because they have read it and liked it or just took a crack at my taste from my Goodreads, I’m pretty sure we would be good pals. I don’t remember (or know) who that was, so if you see this and it’s you, find me on the ‘gram at @cheerbrarian. It’s 1989 and the Danvers High Varsity field hockey team hasn’t historically been award winning, but this […]

“I can be brave. I can be anything for noodles.”

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

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4.5 stars Buzzword Title Challenge 25: Water words Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling, both with her academic subjects at Stanford and her diving. While physically fully recovered from a bad accident a year ago, Scarlett has a block that prevents her from even attempting the type of dive that had her hospitalised and having to go through several surgeries to fix her broken body. She needs to get her grades up if she wants to get into med school, and she has reluctantly agreed to go […]

Enemy Friends

The Why Is Everything: A Story of Football, Rivalry, and Revolution by Michael Silver

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As a sports fan, I often lament at the dearth of quality books on the subject. While there are gems like Ball Four, many sports books are corny, half-baked “tales of the locker room,” anodyne autobiographies, and team recaps that don’t reveal anything new. A truly good sports book is a pearl-in-the-oyster. And when you find it, you don’t want to let it go. This is one such book. No it doesn’t stand there with the greats but it’s a fascinating look at Kyle Shanahan’s story […]

Jello-Coated Updo

Barely Floating by Lilliam Rivera

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Nat is an amazing swimmer, and the pool is her favorite place to be. She’s not afraid to boast about it, or even challenge the older boys to swim races, but she has to be loud and proud. She’s a fat Latina in an sport known for its skinny white athletes. One day, she learns about a local artistic swimming team (formerly known as synchronized swimming). She had no idea that swimmers could not only be strong and fast, but glamorous and creative. Nat adores […]

“Everyone has a thousand wishes before a tragedy, but just one afterward.”

Beartown (Beartown #1) by Fredrik Backman

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WOOF. That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think about this book. I was a big fan of Backman’s heartbreaking and hopeful A Man Called Ove so when a friend said they had just finished it and was going on a bit of a Backman Bender (alliteration!) I was happy to join in for a two person book club. But alas, I gotta say now that I’m done, I would not have finished this book if I was not reading it with a […]

Thunder Down Under

Lapse by Sarah Thornton

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Read as part of CBR16Bingo: scandal. The main character is on the run to this small town after a fiasco in her past life and has to deal with a fiasco in her current one.  I grabbed this one maybe because of Ted Lasso? I don’t remember but I feel like I read somewhere that this was pitched as a Ted Lasso-esque coach solving a mystery. That’s not really the case though. Clementine Jones, though she is similarly running from her past, is not the […]



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