Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About faintingviolet

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A reader and caffeine addict who consumes all sorts of books, some just more frequently than others. Your CBR Book Club Maven with over a decade of Cannonballing experience I believe in the beauty that comes from a common goal of reading, reviewing, and discussing. Also, Fuck Cancer. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: faintingviolet's Quick Questions interview.)

faintingviolet's Reviews:

This One is a Nope for Me

History, Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past by Jason Steinhauer

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In November I attended the American Association for State and Local History Virtual Conference. On each day (there were three) it opened with a plenary, and day two featured Jason Steinhauer author of History Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past. His presentation focused on the many, many ways these aspects of the internet have changed how the public thinks about history, how historians communicate (or don’t), and the implications for those of us in the public history sphere […]

“This is how an idea becomes real.”

Saga: Volume One by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Fiona Staples (artist)

Saga: Volume Two by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Fiona Staples (artist)

Saga: Volume Three by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Fiona Staples (artist)

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I’m working on a re-read of the Saga before I indulge myself in the latest, Volume 10, now that Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples are back from their sabbatical. It’s been four years since I last cracked these books, but I was immediately pulled back into the world that Vaughan’s writing and Staples’ beautiful art bring so vividly to life. Its easy to remember why this series possesses so many awards (seriously, its got Harvey Awards, a Hugo Award, British Fantasy Award, Goodreads Choice […]

“I believe in a kind of holiness in our connection to everything on Earth. Holy is the mouse. Holy is the grain the mouse eats. Holy is the seed. Holy are we.”

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

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I am an outlier on this work. Yaa Gyasi writes like a motherfucker and I will continue to seek out her work, but this book just wasn’t for me. Transcendent Kingdom aims for big, heavy topics but its treatment of them never feels more than surface level. This work stands in stark contrast to Homegoing, and while I can see the impulse to go for a different tack there’s such a bare bones approach to the very heavy topics that Transcendent Kingdom attempts to wrangle […]

“Our myths have not served us well.”

The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones

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I don’t imagine this will be a long review, not because the work doesn’t deserve it, and not because there wasn’t plenty to discuss during our book club earlier this fall, but because after spending months with this work, I don’t know how much more brain space I can give it. In a not insignificant way, I need to be done with this work for now. This book is a discussion. Its various contributors are providing context, new or more in-depth analyses of how so […]

A Wintery Asexual Romance

Ace of Hearts by Lucy Mason

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Even before Read Harder had a task for reading a book with an asexual or aromantic character, I had been on the lookout for a Romance featuring them. It was a niche within the larger Romance genre that I wanted to explore. With that in mind I had added Lucy Mason’s Ace of Hearts to my to-read list in October of last year. And then I waited, patiently (or not so patiently) for a publication date to be announced. Fast forward to this fall, and […]

“I’m human like everybody else. It’s just that I’m so tired, so worn out, I can’t feel anymore.”

Passing by Nella Larsen

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Passing is about pretense, jealousy, psychological ambiguity, concealment, and duplicity. The messiness of being human s portrayed in the relationship between two women, Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield. It is through this narrative that Larsen suggests that both racial and gender/sexual identities are as much artifice as they are intrinsic. Larsen is specific in the manner that she portrays her characters. The mechanics of the writing – and its brevity – are significant indicators of the level of craft on display. Larsen is doing big […]



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