Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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From the US. Living in the UK. Used to review under the name Lollygagger. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: ASKReviews' Quick Questions interview - as Lollygagger.)

ASKReviews's Reviews:

Fighting For the Right For Women To Compete

Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team by Elise Hooper

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Best for: Anyone interested in how women have had to fight against sexism, misogyny, and racism to do simple things like run really fast. In a nutshell: Three women’s stories are told starting in the late 1920s through to the 1936 Berlin Olympic. Worth quoting: “Getting a taste of what it felt like to be good at something and then having it taken away still left her feeling crushed when she allowed herself to think about it.” “Rules could be broken. Judges could be wrong. […]

More Essential Reading

Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male Power by Ijeoma Oluo

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Best for: All the people, but I think white men really need to read and sit with this one. In a nutshell: Author Oluo explores the ways in which the elevation of the mediocrity of white men harms everyone (including white men). Worth quoting: “What I’m saying is that white male mediocrity is a baseline, the dominant narrative, and that everything in our society is centered around preserving white male power regardless of white male skill or talent.” “How can white men be our born […]

Necessary Advice

Break the Glass by Rachel Edwards

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Best for: Anyone needing a reminder that it is okay to ask for help. In a nutshell: Author Edwards shares her experiences with mental health needs in straightforward but lovely writing. Worth quoting: “If you talk and share your thoughts and feelings, you are less, not more, likely to crumble.” Why I chose it: This was published specifically for this month’s “Books That Matter” subscription box. Review: This essay is so needed in this moment. Author Edwards starts sharing what she recalls as her first […]

Interesting Interweaving of Stories

All This Life by Joshua Mohr

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Best for: People interested in exploring how technology affects relationships. In a nutshell: Four different stories involving eight different people intertwine against the backdrop of an event that makes national news. Worth quoting: “All that matters in content. New content. More content.” Why I chose it: Gift from a friend. Review: CN: Suicide; Non-consensual distribution of sexual images A young teen boy films a marching band on the Golden Gate bridge, the members of which end up jumping to their deaths. He then posts the […]

The Non-Academic Version of this Book Could Be Great

Post-Growth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism by Kate Soper

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Best for: Philosophy students and lecturers In a nutshell: Soper’s project is exploring how people can rethink their idea of the good life to fit in with the reality of our current consumer culture’s negative impact on our own lives and the environment. Worth quoting: “However critical they may be of capitalism in other respects, socialists are still much too ready to subscribe to conventional views on the ‘good life’ and what constitutes a ‘high’ standard of living.” Why I chose it: A podcast I […]

Great Fiction For Young Readers

Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed

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Best for: Young readers (8 or 9 and up); adults who want to know what their nieces and nephews are reading. In a nutshell: Amal, a young girl living in Pakistan, talks back to the wrong man and is forced to go work in his home as a maid to his mother. Worth quoting: “Until now, I didn’t realize how memories clumped together. Remembering one unlocked another and then another until you were drowning in a tidal wave threatening to sweep you away.” Why I […]



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