Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This is the Menopause Book I Will Recommend to Every Body

What Fresh Hell is This? by Heather Corinna

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The upside of my disappointment about that other menopause book I reviewed was that several people reached out and told me that there was another book about menopause available for request on NetGalley. What Fresh Hell is This? Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities and You is exactly what I was looking for – gender inclusive, pragmatic, compassionate, and truly, deeply feminist. Why do I, a cis woman, care that a book about menopause is gender inclusive? The answer is, as is the answer to many things, […]

I can’t get behind this exclusionary manifesto

The Menopause Manifesto by Jen Gunter

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I have been eagerly anticipating both menopause and The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism for quite a while, and right now I’m disappointed in both. I know Dr. Jen Gunter knows that not every one with a uterus is a woman. I have seen her speak inclusively about trans men and nonbinary people. She also started the hashtag IfMenHadPeriods, which, well, some men do have periods. Unfortunately, The Menopause Manifesto seems to be only for women, and this undermines her stated desire […]

When life starts because of death

Victor and Nora: A Gotham Love Story by Lauren Myracle

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I debated on reading Victor and Nora: A Gotham Love Story for one (and yes, frankly shallow) reason: I did not like the cover. However, when I saw that my local library had a copy of Lauren Myracle’s graphic novel I decided to read it as I assumed that if I did not like it, I did not have to finish it. It never occurred to me that this was going to be a “Mr. Fries” story. Or more accurately, the teen who would become […]

Giving Money Away Doesn’t Remove Guilt

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

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Best for: Those interested in how corporations and the government have failed us. Those who enjoy a little bit of schadenfreude (though, in my opinion, not nearly enough). In a nutshell: The Sackler family, obsessed with their reputation and ‘good name,’ help 400,000 people to their deaths via the opioid epidemic. Why I chose it: I loved the author’s book ‘Say Nothing’ about The Troubles in Northern Ireland and searched for other work. Saw this was being released in April so ordered it right away. […]

Whether we are or not

We are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer

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I went into this book having no knowledge of its topic, only a fondness for the author’s other work. It turns out, this was the author’s plan. It’s a delightfully written account of the dying earth and how we, the human race, are the leading cause of its death.  It’s a good mix of fact-based research and anecdotal evidence; it’s difficult to talk about this book without revealing its seedy underbelly. So in the interest of full disclosure: SPOILER ALERT, SPOILER ALERT: this book is […]

The perfection of imperfection

Fights: One Boy’s Triumph Over Violence by Joel Christian Gill

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Fights: One Boy’s Triumph Over Violence is not a perfect book. Which is what makes it interesting and exciting. This is (as the author, Joel Christian Gill, themselves says) a memoir not a biography. These snippets of Joel growing up in Virginia, living in the ‘partments, dealing with bullies (adult and kid) are based on events that happened, people he knew and a little poetic license to move his story along. They take you on a journey of how the author learned how and when […]



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