Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Historical (Fan) Fiction: *An Occasionally True Story

Bright We Burn by Kiersten White

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This book and this series goes well beyond my expectations that I held for it. I am not sure what I thought would happen and how I would feel but every other chapter was so compelling that I was lost to whatever they were feeling. The character work here especially just….*chef’s kiss*. I’ll get into it more below. Since this is the third novel in a series and I have not reviewed the other two this is just a quick and non-spoilery summary of these […]

Caste – A book that may change how you view society

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

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There are books one reads for pleasure or diversion. There are books one will read for school or for work. Then, there are some books one reads because they are important and can provide new insights into the world. Caste falls into the latter category. I read this because a close friend asked me to do so, she was putting together a group to discuss the book and asked me to join (and I honestly felt flattered by the request, considering the intellects of the […]

An Afrofuturist short story trio (part 1)

The Visit (Black Stars #1) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Black Pages (Black Stars #2) by Nnedi Okorafor

Clap Back (Black Stars #5) by Nalo Hopkinson

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I was struggling with my Goodreads reading goal until I came across this short story collection, Black Stars. This Amazon Original contains six afro-futurist novellas from Black authors. I’m only reviewing three since I had limited kindle unlimited borrows. I’m sure some of you can relate to this problem. 🙂 I started with Clap Back (Black Stars #5) by Nalo Hopkinson since I just finished her Sandman Universe book, House of Whispers. We enter the story with news headlines about a new haute couture line that […]

Non-Fiction EOY Review Dump

I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom

Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui

Real Queer America by Samantha Allen

Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly

Fed Up by Gemma Hartley

meaty by Samantha Irby

Daring Greatly by Brene Brown

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

How To by Randall Monroe

Food by Jim Gaffigan

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I’m making a final push to wrap up CBR13 with my non-fiction review dump. I read more non-fiction this year than I thought I did, and I was never able to sum up my thoughts properly. I’m trying here, with just moments left!  Food | Jim Gaffigan Although I disagree with Mr. Gaffigan’s take on mustard, I still enjoyed reading Food. It’s a simple take on food — the good, the not so good, how it shapes us and our culture. It was extra light […]

“Lip . . . Dip . . . Paint.”

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

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What I have to say about this book can be whittled down to one classic Samuel L. Jackson moment in cinema: And I truly mean that. Anyone with an ounce of empathy will find this one a tough go. Moore extensively researched the women this story is about, and she pulled not only from scholarly books and articles about them, but from their own personal correspondence, journals, and memories from friends and family. The result is that you get a clear picture of just exactly […]

A fantastical twist on the slave narrative

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates turns the slave narrative on its head. With his first fiction novel, Coates deftly melds together historical fiction with sci-fi fantasy. The novel follows the life of Hiram who we meet when he nearly drowns in the local river. Hiram is born a slave on a Virginia plantation, the son of the master. A story that’s all too common in history. His father made Hiram help his brother with his studies. Hiram has to hold his tongue and go […]



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