Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Black AF History: Boring…AF? (Or Maybe Just Hard To Read)

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

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I will come right out of the gate and say I approached this book the wrong way. I thought it was going to be more of a straight-through read, and it’s definitely something to read in chunks instead. Otherwise everything gets overwhelming and your brain just…shuts down. So perhaps for someone who didn’t try to power through it in a few weeks, or maybe even for someone who listened to the audiobook in its entirety, this book wasn’t…Boring AF. But I definitely found myself wandering […]

Many Truths, No Lies

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

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I knew next to nothing about Cleopatra going into this one. I know she lead Egypt at some point and had an affair with Marc Antony and that all of this caused a Mediterranean kerfuffle in the time of the Roman Empire. But I couldn’t say what her power was or what era she lived in or any of that. I couldn’t even guess, not even taking material from the wildly inaccurate plays and movies about her as I’ve seen none. So it felt good […]

Death and Life and Wheelies

Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon

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During the 2020 COVID quarantine period, my wife and I tried to mentally escape our confinement by watching travel shows. Our favorites were (1) Travel Man, hosted by Richard Ayoade and (2) Long Way motorcycle journey series, hosted by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman (yes, Ewan McGregor). Travel Man focuses on many of travel’s fun social/cultural aspects. In contrast, the Long Way motorcycle series focuses more on the wandering/open/adventure aspects. In one of the Long Way episodes, hosts Ewan and Charley are very excited to […]

2024 Alex Award title filled a Challenge slot

The Talk by Darrin Bell

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CBR16SweetChallenge #New (I think this was the first Alex Award I’ve read) The main thing I liked about the book, The Talk was that it goes through the history of author Darrin Bell. We see the events that would shape him. But with a few exceptions, these were mostly just “day to day” events. The Talk is “Just A Day in the Life of Bell.” We see his point of view while we get his explanations, and his feelings. We see his family through his […]

Having Fun Storming the Castle

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes & Joe Layden

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I do not think it is inconceivable that a person with the username of dreadpiratekel would end up talking about a book about The Princess Bride film. Ahem. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes & Joe Layden is a book about making a movie that was adapted from a book. The movie is, of course, The Princess Bride, and Cary Elwes is our dashing leading man in the film. Now let me say right up front, this book is charming. I have […]

It is an exploration

What Is It? by Lynda Barry

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CBR16SweetChallenge #New (new author, new style of writing/art) What Is It? is not my usual read for several reasons. But I knew the main reason was going to be that the cover was telling me this. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but sometimes you can, especially when it looks like this. Lynda Barry’s work gives off a vibe of “old school gross-out.” It is as if the era of Mad Magazine and others like that threw up in realistic-abstract collages. […]



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