Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Our humanity is worth a little discomfort, it’s actually worth a lot of discomfort.”

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

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I wish I felt better so I could really give So You Want to Talk About Race what it deserves, review-wise. The short review is if you haven’t already read this, you need to. Maybe you are like me and put it on your TBR right after its publication in 2018 and then it fell slowly down the list. Maybe you saw it on all of the recommended reading lists that proliferated in summer 2020 (A Reading List on Race for Allies, Antiracist Reading, Understanding […]

B*tch is not the New Black.

Nice White Ladies by Jessie Daniels

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I remember the moment when I realized that white women, as a whole, are not crusaders for social justice, but enforcers of white supremacy. I had been working towards it for a while. It happened a lot later than I’d like to admit, and the realization took a while to sink in. I’d like to say I’ve given up my illusions about the role of the white woman in the world, but the things we absorb subconsciously as children are the hardest to root out. […]

Powerful Essays

The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House by Audre Lorde

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Best for: People interested in some seriously good essays from a poet and activist. In a nutshell: This mini book contains five of Lorde’s essays / speeches on revolution and liberation. Worth quoting: “To encourage excellence is to go beyond the encouraged mediocrity of our society.” “Only within a patriarchal structure is maternity the only social power open to women.” “Can anyone here still afford to believe that the pursuit of liberation can be the sole and particular province of any one particular race, or […]

A charming Superman tale.

Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang

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I adore Gene Luen Yang. His graphic novels are always interesting and engaging, even those geared towards younger readers. When I saw Superman Smashes the Klan at my local bookstore, I had to take it home. Historical alternate fiction? Graphic novel? Superheroes? Gene Luen Yang? Yes. Roberta and Tommy have moved to Metropolis from Chinatown, because their scientist father has been hired to take on a new project. Tommy quickly makes new friends, but Roberta has difficulty adjusting to their new life, particularly the many […]

Trying to be better pt.1

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

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So, I started writing a review of this book when I finished it in February. I’m not posting that because it feels like a decade has passed since February. I’ve been toiling over what I would do with this review. I don’t think that adding my commentary brings anything new or productive to the table. I believe that part of my role is to shut up and listen. We can’t simply be NOT racist and expect change to happen. Stand up to racism. Stand up to […]

…seeing people as the problem, instead of the policies that ensnare them.

How to Be an AntiRacist by Ibram X. Kendi

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I wrote this review months ago. I have re-written it several times and I’m still not completely comfortable with the results. Worrying about saying the wrong thing or that I spent too much time here talking about myself instead of the book had me reluctant to post it, but those aren’t good enough excuses to not post this review. Unless you have been living in a bunker during our period of social distancing, this is not a title that is unfamiliar. In the wake of […]



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