Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Sit up and take note

Thick and Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

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Tressie McMillan Cottom is an academic (Sociologist) who also writes for the New York Times and has appeared on The Daily Show. Thick was published in 2019 and was a finalist for the National Book Award. It is a collection of essays on race, gender, politics and culture that are meticulously researched and brilliantly argued. This is the kind of collection that bears taking your time to read. McMillan Cottom gives the reader a lot to think about and made me rethink things I thought […]

“The human factor is three-quarters of any expedition.”

Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton

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I’m apparently not normally a reader of books about polar exploration. I cannot find a single one in my 12 years of book reviews. I know it’s an area that I watch documentaries about, but apparently not one I read (although I do occasionally read books about Mt. Everest). However, over the past few months I’ve added several to my to-read list. I’m not sure why, maybe it was my pleasant reading experience of Ghost Ship last summer that put books about exploration by boat […]

I probably rewrote this review a billion times before I thought I was done, then realized I needed more, so just read this book okay? 

You Can Never Die: A Graphic Memoir by Harry Bliss

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I learned early on in my journey of reading Harry Bliss that there are two styles when it comes to his artwork. One is kid friendly and the other adult friendly. However, via an online reader copy of You Can Never Die: A Graphic Memoir, I learned there is a third type to Bliss: the really adult Bliss. This memoir takes slices of life and puts them on the page of a journal. These journal entries, illustrations and more come out in the book. He […]

Don’t Criticize What You Can’t Understand

Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night That Split the Sixties by Elijah Wald

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I really enjoyed A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothee Chalamet. I had a huge Bob Dylan phase as a young man and still listen to him frequently, but I wouldn’t call myself a true Dylanologist. Still, the made me intrigued about the infamous performance at the Newport Folk Festival where Dylan went electric. The movie is an adaptation of Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties. Wald covers the event itself in great detail, […]

“To slowly, slowly give in to the inevitability of adulthood in the hopes that I will age as gracefully as Paris has.”

French Milk by Lucy Knisley

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First, a word on ratings and expectations. French Milk is by my quick count my third Lucy Knisley book (I read Relish way back in 2016 and An Age of License in 2018). So, when I decided to restart my Knisley experience I figured might as well go back to the beginning with her 2007 book French Milk thinking I knew what to expect having read books previously from the author about her mom, food, and travel and this book combines those in Paris. I […]

Two if by Sea: Two Reviews, One Recommendation

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of the HMS Bounty by Sir John Barrow

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Ahoy, mateys! I bring you two tales of adventure from the sea. I’ve had In the Heart of the Sea on my list for quite awhile due to its Moby Dick connection, and I decided to follow that up with another classic true tale: The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of the HMS Bounty. Was I pushing my luck by reading two non-fiction seafaring adventures in a row? Perhaps. In the Heart of the Sea By the time Moby Dick was published […]



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