Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future.”

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

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Cbr11bingo Banned Book, bingo #10 & 11 A frequently challenged classic according to ALA Slaughterhouse-Five propelled Kurt Vonnegut to fame when it was published in 1969. It has been banned in a number of school districts over the decades for language, sex and religious references. Slaughterhouse-Five is  Vonnegut’s attempt to write about his experience as a POW in Dresden during WWII, where he witnessed the firebombing that destroyed the city and caused the deaths of 135,000 people. Slaughterhouse-Five is an anti-war classic that shows through […]

“I took a step toward her. ‘It is my right to reside in my own mind. It is my right,’ I said.” (CBR11Bingo)

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

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Her Body and Other Parties is all about expectations – both the ones on the page for the characters Machado created and for the reader as they come to the much hyped but little described work. I knew going in that the book was pushing boundaries, igniting conversations (the husband stitch, for example), and refused to stick to one genre at any given time, let alone for the entire collection. Having completed the book I understand why reviewers have, one the whole, been relatively mute […]

“Honey girl, I don’t care what you do, as long as you’re kind to everyone you meet.”

Saga, Volume 9 by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples

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I’ve been putting off reading the latest volume of Saga since I had heard it was devastating and that there would be at least a year hiatus until Vaughan and Staples picked back up working on this. Why sit with whatever terrible, soul crushing experience was waiting for me for over a year when I could just live with not knowing for the same amount of time? Well, I abandoned that perfectly solid plan and gave in to temptation. It was just sitting there in […]

The picture book banned for the most ridiculous reason

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I chose this for my “Fahrenheit 451” book purely because of why it was banned.  It was not banned for content like most books. No, the Texas Board of Education banned the colorful storybook due to lack of research.  There’s another Bill Martin, you see, without the Jr., who wrote a book geared toward adults titled Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation.  Someone on the board decided that Ethical Marxism may not be the best book to be molding young Texan minds, and so […]

Stands up as allegory, less so as a novel

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Bingo Square: Fahrenheit 451 Since I switched school districts (and states) between 9th and 10th grade, I ended up reading Lord of the Flies twice in high school English class.  And I despised it both times. Despite that, I noticed at some point that it is a novel I refer to more than some novels I actually enjoyed in school so I had been meaning to do a reread for a while.  After I chose it for the Fahrenheit 451 square, I realized it could […]

“You’ll never understand the way the worlds really work until you surround yourself with people from all sorts of weird backgrounds.”

Saga: Volumes Five through Eight by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Fiona Staples (artist)

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I’ve finally finished the remaining available volumes of Saga. At the end of Four I was devastated, I both simultaneously wanted to start the next volume immediately and knew I wasn’t emotionally ready for it. Instead, I went on vacation, came back, and then slowly continued my journey through Hazel’s story. These books continue to be fantastic and I am in awe of what Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples partnership has managed to accomplish. *As a note, I am refusing to grade these against […]



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