Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

If Mr. Rogers was that quirky uncle, LeVar Burton was that cool older cousin

My Friend LeVar by Ezra Edmond

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I saw the title: My Friend LeVar. And I wondered, “Is this the LeVar?” The Mr. LeVar Burton who was one of the influential parts of my reading childhood? And yes, Ezra Edmond’s picture book (due in October 2024 and read via an online reader copy, and illustrated by Jenna Nahyun) was about that LeVar Burton. The story is unusual in the sense that it is not your usual action book. There is a lesson, but not the ones you usually get. The story is […]

Her head in the Stars

Comet Chaser: The True Cinderella Story of Caroline Herschel, the First Professional Woman Astronomer by Pamela S Turner

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First, let me get the work stuff out of the way, though it is available, I read Pamela S Turner’s book via an online reader copy.  Overall, Comet Chaser: The True Cinderella Story of Caroline Herschel, the First Professional Woman Astronomer, is a beautiful book. The story is what you expect: in a time when girls were housekeepers, got married and had little to no education, we find Herschel as a child, watch her grow and finally see the woman she would become. She is […]

Some might call her the first film maker ever, but for certain the first woman.

Lights! Camera! Alice!: The Thrilling True Adventures of the First Woman Filmmaker by Mara Rockliff

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Lights! Camera! Alice!: The Thrilling True Adventures of the First Woman Filmmaker by Mara Rockliff and Simona Ciraolo hit on the highlights of Guy’s life. The set up is like a classic movie with their title cards (the afterwards will let you know that they are titles of Guy’s films). The focus, while on Guy covers a lot of areas that the adult (graphic novel) biography I read didn’t seem to. Positive and upbeat. The illustrations, while fun and clever, might have been “too cute” […]

Ali Wong is a funny lady

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets and Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong

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Nowhere Books Bingo: About someone you want to learn more about I don’t think I’d heard of Ali Wong before her first Netflix special, Baby Cobra. I’ve now seen all her stand-up specials and also enjoyed Always Be My Maybe, a fun romantic comedy she wrote and starred in with Randall Park, and famously got Keanu Reeves to star as himself. I’ve heard very good things about Beef, but there’s just too much TV out there at the moment, and too little time (especially if […]

The woman who supposedly said the only thing smaller than Hemingway’s talent was his d%ck…

Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes by JL Macy

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I knew I had my cbr16bingo Scandal book when I read the line “your soft saliva, loosed with orgy, drip!”  This category was giving me trouble. I thought I was going to do a children’s graphic novel series for it (there is one big scandal that leads to several littler ones by the looks of the first one I read) but how could I not pick Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes as my Scandal book? Her whole life was a scandal!  She was […]

Let’s Go, Bananas

The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen

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Read as part of CBR16  Bingo: bananas. The biography is on the life of Samuel Zemurray, the notorious “banana king” of United Fruit whose pursuit of wealth and product led to political destabilization in central America and the Caribbean.  It’s a shame that Samuel Zemurray has such an interesting story and yet only a so-so biographer. Rich Cohen takes on compelling subjects such as Zemurray and Albert Hicks (The Last Pirate of New York) but he tells their respective tales in such a slipshod and […]



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