Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Woman in Sport

The Race to Be Myself by Caster Semenya

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Best for: Anyone who ACTUALLY cares about women, or women in sports, or racism, or equity. Also JK Rowling should read this as maybe she’d learn a thing or two (though I’d love to keep Semenya off Rowling’s radar, since Rowling is generally horrible when it comes to women’s issues). In a nutshell: Olympic runner Semenya shares her story, from growing up in South Africa to becoming one of the fastest women in the world, to facing the racism and misogyny of the sporting world. […]

“This brilliant darkness, with which I am coming to terms.”

This Brilliant Darkness: A Book of Strangers by Jeff Sharlet

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I love photojournalism so I was intrigued by this when I saw it at a photography museum bookshop. This Brilliant Darkness is a mix of photographs, interviews, and memoir. It covers a gamut of “frightened and frightening people,” with Sharlet talking to the homeless, queer people in Russia, violent homophobes, an abortionist in Kenya, and many more people. He has a good eye for a story while remaining respectful and thoughtful. Sometimes projects like this can feel exploitative or extractive, but this one didn’t really […]

Get to know Bob Mortimer

And Away… by Bob Mortimer

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Cbr16bingo bananas If you know who Bob Mortimer is, “bananas” as a bingo square choice needs no explanation. Mortimer is a British comedian who has had a decades-long successful career performing live and on TV with his partner Vic Reeves (Jim Moir). My husband bought me Mortimer’s autobiography last year because we are both big fans of his from seeing him on British panel shows such as Would I Lie To You (WILTY) and on Taskmaster. Mortimer is a master storyteller— some of them true, […]

Whitewashed Histories and Walls

White House by the Sea: A Century of the Kennedys at Hyannis Port by Kate Storey

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CBR16 Bingo: Cult – The Kennedys have rather a cult following, and in this book particularly we learn how many people were so fascinated they swarmed their homes in Hyannis Port. When the Kennedy family decided to make their summer home in Hyannis Port, MA, they little suspected how strongly associated the place would become with their aspirations and their scandals. I’m a Massachusetts native, but my family’s roots there don’t go back long enough to have really witnessed the heyday of the Kennedys in […]

A Star of Stage and Screen, Behind the Scenes

Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris

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Mark Harris wrote two of the best books about movies that I’ve ever read (Pictures at a Revolution and Five Came Back) so I always knew I would eventually make my way to his third book, a biography of the prolific director Mike Nichols. Mike Nichols: A Life is a comprehensive account of Nichols’s varied professional life, starting with his legendary improv double act with Elaine May and progressing through his incredible success as a theater director on Broadway and his eventual successes in Hollywood. […]



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