Once upon a time, there was a plucky little website community that loved reading and hated cancer. They were plugging along, doing well with their goals of reading and reviewing a buncha books, as well as donating whenever they could to the American Cancer Society, when MsWas, their Cannonball Queen, got word of an unexpected and fabulous gift, bestowed upon them by kind strangers. "We just really like to support sites like yours," said Eric and Tamara Yollick.
The Yollick's $200 donation ensures the continuation of Cannonball Read, as it pays for our web hosting through March 2018, and it means that every cent the blog makes and all future donations can now go directly to the American Cancer Society.
Other heartwarming things the Yollicks, who have two cancer survivors in their family, had to say:
"You are doing an awesome thing. We'll point people to your site whenever we can."
"I found your site by accident while I was searching for book reviews, and we really enjoyed reading the reviews."
To the Yollicks, from all of us at Cannonball Read,
Q&A with TWO Cannonballers: PattyKates!
Have you been team-reviewing since the beginning? How long have you been participating, either separately or together?
Patty: I participated in CBR 4, I think? Only managed to actually review a handful of books. Katie has been much more diligent about it (as is her annoying, goody-two-shoes way). She took advantage of the fact that I was making love to a bottle of Glenfiddich one night and talked my drunk ass into doing a joint review.
Katie: I started with CBR7, reviewing by myself as katie71483. I was kinda stuck with reviewer's block, so Patty suggested we do one together. The rest is history.
Do you know each other in real life, or is this all a beautiful CBR online friendship?
Katie: Never met the bitch. It's all online. We do talk on the phone sometimes, so I guess all online isn't true strictly speaking, but no, we've never met in person.
Patty: Our friendship was spawned by Pajiba. It's weird because sometimes I have to explain to others that we've never actually met, but she has easily become a dear friend. Although my spouse maintains she is imaginary and an obvious cry for help.
See what else they had to say about books, snacks, and each other »
September #CannonBookClub: Young Adult
The book club discussion of Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was almost overwhelmingly positive, which is a little unusual but awesome. Stay tuned for next quarter's book club (classic books with film adaptations on December 1) to see if we stay on the same page.
Doubles
Narfna hit her double Cannonball, along with Bonnie, and Malin is right on their tails. They may not have caught up with badkittyuno's triple, but there's still time! If you're reading this and thinking, "Hey! I should be on that list!" That probably means you're not updating your Leaderboard numbers. Congratulations, everybody, and keep up the good work!
Y'all continue to rock
We've made our fourth donation to the American Cancer Society, bringing the CBR total to $575 this year! Keep clicking on Buy Holes, keep opening links, keep posting and reading reviews. Thanks for everything, team.
Celebrating the freedom to read
Banned Books Week is September 26 - October 1. The American Library Association has a list of "challenged" books from last year, if you'd like to see what The Man wants to keep you from reading. The list is, rage- and despair-inducingly, full of books that spotlight diversity. In fact, Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian just came off that list last year, after seven years of being 'challenged.' Read 'em, talk about 'em, help get the word out!
Volunteer needed
You guys have been on a roll with the volunteer efforts, so we're reaching out again. Anybody with Adobe Illustrator experience want to help with vector graphics? Contact MsWas and she'll give you more specifics. Thanks in advance!
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