Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About badkittyuno

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I'm baaaaaack (missed y'all!) (Learn more about this Cannonballer: badkittyuno's Quick Questions interview.)

badkittyuno's Reviews:

What Stands in a Storm

What Stands in a Storm: Three Days in the Worst Superstorm to Hit the South's Tornado Alley by Kim Cross

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I live in North Texas, on the edge of “Tornado Alley”, a broad area of the United States where tornado activity occurs most. I have grown up with tornado sirens, tornado drills, and text messages from my mother telling me to go hide in the bathroom with the cats (messages I mostly ignore, sorry Mom). I think severe weather is fascinating — the immense power that storms create and the damage they cause — and luckily I’ve haven’t experienced too much firsthand. I’ve definitely hid […]

The Son

The Son by Jo Nesbø

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Man, what a story. Jo Nesbø is a Norwegian author who has written 12+ books about a detective named Harry Hole. My library has like, half of them available on audiobook and while I’ve heard they’re very good, I hate starting a series if I can’t access all the titles! But this novel, The Son, is a stand-alone so I gave it a shot. It was excellent, and now I’m certain I’ll have to start the Harry Hole series. “Suddenly he realised why so many of […]

Wholly Unraveled: A Memoir

Wholly Unraveled: A Memoir by Keele Burgin

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Here’s another “really messed up childhood” memoir, with a big focus on how the author reclaimed her own identity in a commune as a young adult. “Other memories came camouflaged, and I couldn’t see through to the middle. But I could feel their weight; it was my worthlessness.” Raised by the leader of a Christian cult, Burgin spent her childhood strictly abiding by her rather terrifying father’s rules. This is a man who punished her with physical violence for wearing a pair of red Gloria […]

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill, Lisa Pulitzer

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These Scientology books always amaze me. The otherwise totally normal and intelligent people who get sucked into a cult like Scientology, and drag their children along them, will never make sense to me. But that won’t stop me from reading the memoirs of ex-Scientologists. Jenna Miscavige grew up deep in the Scientology organization. Her uncle, David Miscavige, ran the church, and although she didn’t really know him, having the Miscavige name carried a lot of weight. It also carried a lot of expectations — she […]

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

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I got pretty far into this book before double-checking that it really WAS non-fiction. Because the actions of these slumlords were so horrific that I couldn’t believe the author actually witnessed them. But it’s all true — Desmond spent years gathering data about eviction, specifically following 8 families in Milwaukee as their lives (and addresses) changed. “Every condition exists,” Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, “simply because someone profits by its existence. This economic exploitation is crystallized in the slum.” Exploitation. Now, there’s a word […]

“when you’re between two shores and no one can see you, you don’t really exist at all.”

A List of Cages by Robin Roe

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This is a YA novel with writing that seems skewed towards a younger audience (middle school) but touches on some heavy themes — child abuse, namely. It’s a sad story with an uplifting message — “Hate ricochets, but kindness does too.” Roe doesn’t pull any punches which makes the story incredibly powerful. She tells the story in simple language, but the story itself is far from simple. “Because people heal a whole lot faster when they’re with someone who loves them” Adam Blake, a senior […]



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