Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

When Far Away is as close as your backyard

If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar

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#cbr11bingo #FarAndAway I am not a woman of the Islamic faith. I did not grow up an orphan. I did not look different from people around me due to my skin color. I do know what it is like to be a woman in our society (and a plus sized one) but I cannot imagine the ethnic cleansing/genocide of over 14 million people during the India/Pakistan Partition and 75,000 to 100.000 of them were women. Yes, I grew up poor. Yes, I know what the […]

Chap sees an swan in the cinema. He says “are you a swan?” “Yes” comes the answer. “What are you doing here?” “Well, I liked the book”.

Wild Swans by Xanthe Gresham Knight

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#cbr11bingo #Classic You most likely know at least one version of the classic story of Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen; but the illustrations by Charlotte Gastaut are what make this edition, retold by Xanthe Gresham Knight, fresh. Knight’s version of the story has the young princess, Eliza, sent to live with a family in a village that has not been touched by the plague that took her mother. This is after her father remarries and Stepmother knows that to keep her safe, Eliza must […]

U is for Unique

The GayBCs by M. L. Webb

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The GayBCs will for certain turn heads. It will get people talking. Maybe even very loudly. M. L. Webb’s alphabet book is not your father’s ABC book. How do I write a review for this book? Very carefully. This book will be a hot button book, no question about it. Sometimes it feels like it is talking directly only to the GLBT+ community. Sometimes there is a feeling of it is talking to everyone. This book will either bring out the A in you (A […]

“I fell in love at a bad time.” Clio in Orpheus Girl

Orpheus Girl by Brynne Rebele-Henry

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#cbr11bingo #remix First, I will say, this book may have some trigger moments (The italics is taken from Good Reads: There are scenes in this book that depict self-harm, homophobia, transphobia, and violence against LGBTQ characters. As well as the images of the “treatments”). And then I will say that this review is not all positive and possibly not politically correct. It might go against what you personally believe, but this whole review is how I feel about Brynne Rebele-Henry’s book Orpheus Girl. There is […]

You can’t stop mourning everything all the time.

Magical Negro by Morgan Parker

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CBR11Bingo – Own Voices The font and cover design of the front of this book is stunning and alluring, but also made me a little self-conscious to be reading this book out in public. This is an absolutely wonderful collection of poems that feels like a long essay on the visceral experiences contained within. While I am not against reading polemics on race in America, one thing that I have had some frustration with in the last first years is kind of perfectly correct, but […]

Poetry for the non-fan

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

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(Trigger warning: this review will mention rape several times, though not in any graphic or descriptive way.) This is my annual foray into poetry thanks to my local library’s adult summer reading bingo challenge. Poetry is not at all my bag. I read one book a year and that’s it. As a friend of mine is fond of saying: I’m not trying to yuk anyone’s yum. But my joy as a reader comes from diving into a good story that will leave me challenged and, […]



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