Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A natural woman

Alice Guy: First Lady of Film by Jose-Louis Bocquet

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cbr15bingo History: Alice Guy was a woman who made history. And people did try to ban her (she talked about GASP birth control!) and if Texas or Florida got hold of this book?  You might think you know the film industry and/or know its history, but do you know about Alice Guy: First Lady of Film?  While I do not claim to know anything about the history of film, I never have. Of course, I am not one for knowing who directors are nor really […]

I Hate It and I Love It (Running, Not the Book)

Running Like a Girl by Alexandra Heminsley

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Best for: Women interested in distance running. In a nutshell: Author Heminsley shares her journey to becoming a long distance runner, and what she’s learned along the way. Worth quoting: “After a while though I began to realise that no one was really watching.” Why I chose it: I’ve been running half marathons for about 14 years now, but this year I decided to get a running coach to see if I can improve my time. Then I saw this book and decided why not […]

A good reminder that the “banality of evil” led to real harm

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

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I’m suspicious and wonder if maybe I read a version of this book that didn’t include the second half? I really, genuinely don’t recall reading about logotherapy—just reading about Frankl’s experiences in the Nazi concentration camp system. I will write my review from that perspective, because it certainly seems like the second part of this book lost a few readers. I’m of that schooling system that emphasized the Great Wars and All The Horror Therein quite a bit. American exceptionalism was ne’er to be found, […]

“Now and then the images from those years come into alignment, and I see something…”

Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White by Lila Quintero Weaver

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I tend to think I have a pretty good handle on the state of the graphic novel/comic scene, which is why when I stumble across a great book like this that I missed, it thrills me and makes me think about what else is out there that I haven’t found yet. This was a random find at a used bookstore, which is often my favorite way to find a book. It’s like a little gift that suddenly pops into your life! I wonder if part […]

A Disappointing Read for Me

So Compassionate it Hurts: My Life as a Rabbi on the Spectrum by Tzemah Yoreh

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I was really excited to read this because I’d never seen another book that combined looking at Judaism and Autism through a memoir lens. Unfortunately this book was just not for me and I ended up irritated and forcing myself to finish it. It’s a pretty short book and a third of it is sermons and poetry, which for me took away from the actual memoir portion. Yoreh is extremely into poetry and I know this is a personal issue, but I am not a […]

“I started out in a green house with a red door in a small town, where mysteries abounded.”

Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew

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Voyager is my favorite Star Trek series so I was interested to read this book and learn more about Kate Mulgrew’s life. She is a very lyrical writer with a great eye for detail — having read other celebrity memoirs before, you can tell when one is ghostwritten and this one read as if it was purely her own effort. She has a strong voice and is able to really capture a scene and the elements that make it powerful. Her writing elevates this beyond […]



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