Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Pray For the Dead, Fight Like Hell For the Living”

Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor by Kim Kelly

by Leave a Comment

Teen Vogue columnist and independent labor reporter Kim Kelly delves into the history of American Labor, how long people have been striking for more rights and better pay, and how truly far we still have to go. From the coal mines and the garment factories to the airlines, the strip clubs and Amazon warehouses, from California to New York, she lays out how sometimes a few people can spark a movement and make big changes. As someone who grew up hearing about the effectiveness of […]

This One’s A Thriller

The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben MacIntyre

by Leave a Comment

First of all: RIP Oleg Gordievsky. I picked this up unaware he died earlier in March. Or maybe I had heard it and my subconscious urged me to read it. Either way, hope he rests in peace. Yeah the “reads like a thriller” tag is accurate here. I really do need to read more Ben MacIntyre. I’ve tried with MacIntyre before and while his books are good, I need to be in a specific headspace to read non-fiction and stuff kept getting in the way. […]

“To click, to tumble, to descend.”

Breathing Machines: A Memoir of Computers by Leigh Alexander

by Leave a Comment

My first memory of a computer is that my backyard neighbor had one. Jason was my age, and his parents were both attorneys. They had both a sailboat and a computer, and in my mind those items were of the same status. Who has a COMPUTER? My second memory of a computer is getting an NES, a Nintendo Entertainment System. My dad was the one who hooked it up to the back of our tv, and he was really the one who understood how to play […]

What’s in your pockets right now?

Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close by Hannah Carlson

by 1 Comment

This one started out strong and just kind of lost steam for me. Informative, excellent images, but I probably would have broken up the chapters differently.  I need more words for a Cannonball Read review, you say? Oh. I’ll keep going then.   Material culture history is a fascinating way to unpack a time period and really get a feel for what life was really like and the complicated web that leads to our recorded history, and not what nonsense humans want you to think […]

Raindrops falling on everything

It Starts With A Raindrop by Sally Garland

by Leave a Comment

I almost did not write a review for It Starts With A Raindrop by Sally Garland and illustrated by Aimee Gallagher. This was not because it was bad, or because I didn’t like it, but because it started as a “been there done that” read. It is a poem (slightly romantic and feeling simplistic) about the life cycle of a raindrop and the things it does. You have facts about things (the drop will fall in the puddles, or sand; it will find oceans and […]

She was “Sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

The Story of Fannie Lou Hamer: An Inspiring Biography for Young Readers (The Story of Biographies) by Margeaux Weston

by Leave a Comment

She was born Fannie Lou Townsend. She became Fannie Lou Hamer after marrying. She would be born to a large family (20 children) run by sharecropper parents. She did as much schooling as she could, leaving school at a young age, but continuing to read and learn whenever she could.  As she grew she felt that having to work so hard for little results, the discrimination, having to struggle to take care of a family, and having no rights because she was a black woman […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo