Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I recommend BINGO and this book

The Last Time We Spoke: A Story of Loss by Jesse Mechanic

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cbr17bingo Rec’d: Grief stories are not new, but each is unique to that person. The main thing I came away with from reading The Last Time We Spoke: A Story of Loss, is that the author (Jesse Mechanic) is human: selfish, loving, scared, fearless, angry and hopeful. They are both a reliable and unreliable narrator as they are telling the story from their eyes and over a 20 year period. The art is tone setting and allows us a peek into the mind of someone […]

“We all carry our special homes with us – in our backpacks and pockets, and in our hearts.”

My Home Is in My Backpack by Eugenia Perella

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cbr17bingo, MigrantMigrant: There are many ways to find a book when you work in a bookstore. One is finished copies sent out before the book is published. This way the bookseller can get the full feeling of the book. And I am very glad I was able to do this with My Home Is in My Backpack by Eugenia Perella (due in October 2025). An online copy would not  do this book justice. Clara and her family are forced to leave an unnamed home/homeland. They […]

Much Better than St. Louis Sushi

Actress of a Certain Age by Jeff Hiller

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The book: Actress of a Certain Age is a collection of autobiographical essays by Jeff Hiller, an actor who spent 20 years playing mostly bit parts and commercials before being cast in Somebody Somewhere on HBO. He talks about his childhood in Texas, his process of coming out, trying to find work he enjoyed, what it’s like to be a struggling actor, and a whole lot of other stuff besides. Why I read it: Somebody Somewhere was an absolute gift during the pandemic, and Hiller was a huge […]

Whisper Sweet Nothings About Chopin All Day Long

The Unforgivable and Other Writings by Cristina Campo

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This collection of short stories was the product of an unusual author.  Campo, born in Italy in 1923, had been a sickly child (heart condition) and grew up secluded by her wealthy family in a villa in Tuscany.  In the 1960s, she moved to Rome, and lived in a convent for long periods of time until her untimely death in 1977. Some of her earlier work borders a little too closely to twee for my taste, and I do not share her enthusiasm for Catholic […]

The Language Warrior’s Manifesto

The Language Warrior's Manifesto: How to Keep Our Languages Alive at All Costs by Anton Treuer (Ojibwe)

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My tribal community has primarily spoken English for a very long time. Growing up, I learned a few words of our language from my grandmother and other folks in social/ceremonial contexts. As an adult, going to college and continuing to live in an urban area far from the tribal homeland, I made a conscious effort to seek out other people from sister tribes (long story, but the federal government moved our ancestors around and effectively split up one nation of people; my tribe is pretty […]

Diverse disabled exepriences

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice Wong

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Why did I read Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the 21st Century from Alice Wong and dozens others? I urgently needed to borrow a book from a friend for specific and convoluted reasons. And the Storygraph’s Genre Challenge includes “an essay collection by a disabled author.” Finally, as a person who digs fashion and human rights, I was (and am) a fan of well dressed activist Alice Wong. Essentially, I had no reason not to read it.   The book is split into four groups […]



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