Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

CBR15 Bingo: Africa (Triple Bingo and Blackout)

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamande Ngozi Adichie

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CBR15 Bingo: Africa Not going to lie, I originally planned to read Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, but as we were nearing the end of October and I had this last square to complete on my Cannonball Bingo card, I decided to be strategic and read something rather shorter instead. Hence this essay, which I’m ashamed to say is the first thing I’ve actually read by Ms. Adichie. Do I own all three of her novels in e-book form? I do indeed. Should I read them […]

Warfare of soccer at Bull Run Regional Park (and other stuff)

Team Photograph by Lauren Haldeman

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What the flaming monkey toots did I just read? Or more accurately, took me a few days to read. Team Photograph is an artist’s interpretation of Lauren Haldeman’s experiences and feelings. When I first finished the online (though currently available) reader copy, I was thinking, “Is Team Photograph a memoir? An attempt at purging the feelings she has about death? Is it a commentary on war and the resulting death that will haunt people if they are aware of it? Or is it just a […]

The other first Radio City Rockette

She Kept Dancing: The True Story of a Professional Dancer with a Limb Difference by Sydney Mesher and Catherine Laudone

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Years ago, my dad (who was a painting contractor) had a client who noticed the t-shirt he was wearing. It was my (knock-off) Rockette t-shirt (my mom did the laundry and didn’t pay attention to the fact that it was not one of my dad’s shirts and put it with his work clothes. I was a bigger teen; my dad a smaller guy). The client informed my dad that A) it was not official and B) did he know she was a Rockette herself? Well […]

Two women doing their things

A Take-Charge Girl Blazes and Trail to Congress: The Story of Jeannette Rankin by Gretchen Woelfle

Eleanor Roosevelt: Her Path to Kindness by Aura Lewis

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I have a little soft spot for v; even if she spells her name wrong. (You can spell it with one N which is the way I prefer). She was an independent woman. One who made history because she knew nobody else could. She stood her ground, won and lost elections and popularity because of it and was all around both a woman of her time and far ahead of it. Rankin was a woman who knew her mind, would become an activist despite any […]

“I don’t want to disappear. I want to exist in my body, with these new possibilities. Possibilities. Perhaps that is one of the main components of life lost to lack of representation. Options erased from the imagination. Narratives indoctrinated that we spend an eternity attempting to break. The unraveling is painful, but it leads you to you.”

Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page

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30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 3 Book 8/30 This book will not give you outrage or gossip. It will not get you all tingly with stuff it feels like maybe you shouldn’t know, and you will end the book not knowing who several of the main players are, because Elliot values privacy and is a good person. This book is first and foremost the story of Elliot coming to terms with his gender identity and transness amid a world that devalues and dismisses it, […]

This is the biography review

Gifts from Georgia's Garden: How Georgia O'Keeffe Nourished Her Art by Lisa Robinson

Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues: The Extraordinary Life of James Baldwin by Michelle Meadows

A Grand Idea: How William J. Wilgus Create Grand Central Terminal by Megan Hoyt

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I was into biographies as a kid. Yet, I didn’t have as many selections as we have today. Mostly because only so many were made, only so many were allowed due to age limits, space and only so many my schools and libraries could afford. Yet, one thing that has stayed the same throughout the years, is we tend to have the same people. We have Amelia E. Or Helen Keller. Or Dr. M. L. King. Or the hottie of the moment (Swift, Styles). Therefore, […]



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