I’m honestly a little bit afraid to write this review, having learned what I learned by reading Going Clear. I don’t want to crap out and not write a review. Other Cannonballers have been brave. What am I so afraid of? An aggressively, violently litigious organization with enormous reach that picks legal and physical fights with anyone who questions their legitimacy. A for-profit company that practically bankrupted the US Treasury in their fight for IRS-recognized status as a religion. An abusive institution that uses its […]
Allende is a Goddess
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, translated by Magda Bogin
There is so much that Isabel Allende weaves into her writing, it is simply astounding. There is so much history, allegory, and personal stakes woven into the story of one family that it is almost impossible to know where to start. How have I not read this before? Why the holy fucking hell did I have to read Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis when this existed in the world. I COULD HAVE DEMONSTRATED THE STUDY OF LITERARY WORKS IN CONTEXT THROUGH THE STUDY OF WORKS IN […]
Mary Doria Russell Always Makes Me THINK
I read The Sparrow last year and was absolutely gutted by the story of Father Emilio Sandoz and the crew of the first mission to Rakhat. Having decided to work my way through Mary Doria Russell’s works, I knew that I would eventually read its sequel, Children of God. However, I knew very little about it, other than that it continued Emilio’s story. Bonnie also read The Sparrow for Cannonball Read 7, and we had talked about reading Children of Men together this year. In […]
Leah Remini does good Scientology memoir.
“Belief and faith are great, but very few people have been led astray by thinking for themselves.” I finished this book at one AM on a work night, when I had to be up at 6 AM the next morning. I did this even though I knew I would feel like shit the next morning, because I just couldn’t help myself. I was thinking, boy, I should go to bed! I’m going to regret this tomorrow (and probably the days after)! And then I just […]
On My Own Cranky, Beautiful Path to Faith
I don’t really know how to review Pastrix. I think what I’m going to do is tell you a bit about the book and its author, and then blog about how some of the things in the book really affected me and gave me some things to ruminate on. So, enter at your own risk, I’m going to talk about faith. Awhile back our own bonnie read and reviewed this book and suggested it to me via Goodreads before I even had a chance to […]
“It’s fear that makes us lose our conscience. It’s also what transforms us into cowards.”
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (translated by Mattias Ripa, Blake Ferris, Anjali Singh)
This year as I began making my epic list of things to read for Cannonball I asked some of my friends what they would suggest. While having these conversations my coworker mentioned that she hadn’t read Persepolis yet, but kept meaning to, and had I. I had not, so on the list it went, since she’s the mom of two small kiddoes, I could certainly do a little market research for her reading intake. Good news for her and you is that I *really* liked […]