Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Two strong women

Hedy Lamarr (Little People, Big Dreams) by Sanchez Vegara

Laverne Cox (Little People, Big Dreams) by Sanchez Vegara

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Hedy Lamarr (Little People, Big Dreams) by Sanchez Vegara, Maria Isable and Maggie Cole tells the story of this world-renowned actress and scientist. Aimed at a younger audience, some of her life would not be completely appropriate for the traditional picture book listener and/or reader (she was married to an arms dealer and he was cruel to her). Yet, it is handled well and with an adult, you can explain easily enough. But of course, know your audience. However, with Laverne Cox (Little People, Big Dreams) by […]

Elementary, my dear reader

Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock (Who Wrote Classics)  by Linda Bailey

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Ages ago I found an online reader link to a book. It looked interesting, but not one I wanted to read right away. I put it in my saved links and forgot about it, until one day I was going through those saved links and found Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock (Who Wrote Classics) by Linda Bailey again. It is a clever telling of the life and times of the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The narrator tells us this story as if the two of us (narrator […]

Mommy Dearest

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

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I saw a short interview with Jennette McCurdy about her new memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), and it sounded interesting. But then my friend mentioned she had read the book, and argued that we should outlaw child actors altogether. I didn’t completely disagree with her, but it seemed like an extreme statement. I wondered what in the book had made her feel so strongly. So, I picked it up on audiobook from the library. I thought it was fascinating. I never got bored, and I […]

We not only have faces and names; some of us have extensive bibliographies.

Creep: Accusations and Confessions by Myriam Gurba

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I became aware of Myriam Gurba on Twitter when she tweeted about her review of a forthcoming bestseller, American Dirt, being killed because it was too mean. My first thought, being intimately familiar with the liberties white women take with other people’s stuff, was that she was, at a minimum, as mean as she needed to be. (I am a white woman, born and raised in Texas, so when I say I am intimately familiar, I mean it is my heritage.) There is an essay […]

The journey of Grayson

Dotson: My Journey Growing Up Trangender by Grayson Lee White

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Grayson Lee White is a young teen by the end of his memoir, Dotson: My Journey Growing Up Transgender.  They started their story at the end (around age 12) but flashback to show us the journey they took.  This is an interesting memoir of Grayson’s transition that is told in their own voice. His journey is relatable and understandable, because what he was going through is something we all can feel: such as he felt he didn’t fit in, things were wrong with his body, and most […]

“The risks may be formidable, but the high is sublime.”

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

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We recently read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver for my book club. I was very impressed with it, and we inevitably began talking about the devastation of the opioid epidemic. I’m pretty sure I’d seen Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (2021) by Patrick Radden Keefe on book lists and recommendations. But after reading Demon Copperhead, I had a renewed interest in learning more about the specifics. It also helped that we’d already read Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, and it came highly recommended by a fellow […]



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