Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Eddie, if you’d never done anything but this, I’d be proud all my life.”

Take My Life by Eddie Cantor with Jane Kesner Ardmore

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I really loved this memoir and it made me cry on the train, which is quite an achievement given how much I hate crying in public transit. I had never heard of Eddie Cantor before I picked this up randomly in a used bookstore due to the cover, but his dedication to charity fundraising and his kind nature come through very strongly in this book. He had raised over $280 million for charity at the time he wrote this (1957), which given inflation is just […]

CBR15 Bingo: Queer Lives (Bingo)

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson

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CBR15 Bingo: Queer Lives In July, the Forever Young Adult Reading Challenge prompt was Banned Books. Since All Boys Aren’t Blue was the second most banned book in America during the 2021-2022 school year, only beaten by Gender Queer, and I’d had the book on my digital bookshelf for a while, it felt like a suitable book to choose. This book was also one of the book club selections last year for the Cannonball book club, when we did banned books (this year we did […]

I suspect a complete lack of physical affection has led the British monarchy to where it is today.

Spare by Prince Harry

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CBR15 Bingo: Politics – The internal politicking of the British royal family is intriguing and horrifying. While not a British royal super fan, I’ve always been interested in them.  Queen Elizabeth’s corgis were part of the reason I got a corgi of my own. I thought I knew the broad strokes of Harry’s early life; trouble in schools, some drugs, partying, two stints in the military, and then he seemed to come into his own as an adult.  In recent years, I’ve followed the royals […]

“Life is messy, unpredictable, and seldom tied into neat little boxes”, JVN.

Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness

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CBR Bingo: Queer Lives – Jonathan Van Ness identifies as non-binary (using all pronouns interchangeably, I’m choosing to use he/him since that is predominantly what is used on the Netflix show Queer Eye) and is happily married to his husband. Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love was the pick of my book club.  Most people know him from the Netflix revival of Queer Eye.  Or perhaps you’ve seen the ads for his haircare line on Facebook (he does have gorgeous hair).  At the […]

“Spending time in these worlds is my happy place. The problems arise when it’s time to leave…”

It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth: An auto-bio-graphic-novel by Zoe Thorogood

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Cbr15bingo Bodies, Bodies Writer/illustrator Thorogood depicts herself in a variety of different bodies in this book, and her depression takes the form of a monster that follows her around Zoe Thorogood was nominated for 5 Eisner Awards this year for her work on both Joe Hill’s Rain and her own book It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth. Thorogood is a gifted comic book artist, but It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth shows that she is also a talented writer. It’s Lonely […]

“Not to be devastated by my mistake, but instead to be motivated. He spoke to me with the quality one often encounters in truly wise people—forgiveness.”

Spare by Prince Harry

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I had no intention of reading Prince Harry’s memoir. Until I did. I should have known I’d cave, I’m a sucker for memoirs. There’s something about hearing a person’s story in their own words, particularly if that story is contested in some way, as Prince Harry’s has always been. What Spare is, at its core, is a person reckoning with the way in which they were raised, and the very real ways grief and trauma informed their experience of the world. That is the piece […]



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