Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Some days are just survival days, and that’s OK”

How to Keep House While Drowning: 31 Days of Compassionate Help by KC Davis

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I’m exhausted. I want to review this book like any other book—with sense, detail, and maybe a little wit—but I’m too tired and too sad to say much more than: this is a great, great book. It’s been recommended highly by Emmalita (see awesome review here) and it sounded like the right book at the right time for me. How to Keep House While Drowning: 31 Days of Compassionate Help by KC Davis is about combatting shame and judgment around taking care of your space. […]

I love sassy Irish lasses

Roots by Tara O'Connor

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Roots deals with the interesting concept of well, Roots: the roots that are our family’s history, finding our place to finally set them down, and dying our hair. This graphic novel is a sweet peek at Tara O’Connor after her divorce. Which of course, was not sweet, but even in the more somber moments, there is always a glimmer of hope. As the reader I had the feeling of reading her diary as Tara takes us through the journey of lost love and trying to […]

“Don’t offend the gays and don’t inflame the homophobes.”

And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts

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My boyfriend recommended that we watch And the Band Played On together. It looked like a good movie, but I knew I wanted to read the book first. Initially I was intimidated by the lengthy six hundred-some-odd pages, but I eventually bought And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts. Originally published in 1987, I read the 20th Anniversary edition. I was quite young when AIDS broke out in the United States, and the epidemic has never affected me personally. I vaguely remember […]

I am become Death

Atomic Dreams: Prayer Cycle Edition by Jazan Wild

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This is an almost 900-word review. But all you need to know are the first few paragraphs. If you wish to read the whole thing, be my guest! But know a lot goes on in the books and a lot went into the review. These books are 3.5 to 4. They are some of the most horrible, gut-wrenching, disgusting books I have ever read. And I want to reread them. I want to shout to everyone READ THESE!! The horror of the “mistress” that is […]

A smidge TOO ‘simple’…

Destination Simple by Brooke McAlary

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Destination Simple is very short self help book, aiming to introduce the reader to ‘everyday rituals for a slower life’. The cover shows a blue sky with trees and little clouds, and the back has a pair of hands holding a warm terracotta mug of something steamy.  It posits the usual platitudes: life is too busy, everyone is stressed, we take on too much, etc etc. McAlary’s answer to modern mayhem is to introduce a series of rituals (NOT ‘to dos’) and rhythms (NOT ‘routines’) […]

“You can’t force love, it unfolds.”

Men Loving Men: A Gay Sex Guide and Consciousness Book by Mitch Walker

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I really enjoyed this and it was uplifting to read after the Dahmer book I just got through, where the author was associating gay sex and being gay with corrupting people’s souls. Men Loving Men is partially a straight forward guide to gay sex, but it’s also a “consciousness book,” which in this case meant a lot of cheerful and thoughtful positivity. I had thought it was mainly going to be a sex ed book, as I’d somehow missed the subtitle, so I was pleasantly […]



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