Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Not the plucky pilot story I expected…

Flyboys by James Bradley

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Flyboys is a true, brutally honest and gut wrenching account of World War II on the Pacific front, focusing on “war in the third dimension” more commonly known as air combat. The story starts at Pearl Harbor, moving through the United States’ clamor to build aircraft and train pilots, to the napalm bombing of Japan and finally the dropping of the two atomic bombs. It’s highlights all the key players in the uprising of military flying: An introduction to Hap Arnold, the leader of the […]

Hauntingly awesome

Hardly Haunted by Jessie Sima

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cbr13bingo Self Care  Self Care to me is having fun. Halloween is fun (I mean CANDY????) and costumes (I have had more fun with costumes as an adult then I ever did as a kid, and I had some crazy fun costumes. Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother with her sign of qualifications anyone? Or years before, homemade paper mice in a cage (all connected) made by grandpa for the Cinderella costume?) Also, fun? Reading books. All types of books. Big ones, small ones, picture books, novels, poetry… […]

To Be Young, Gifted, and Black – Lorraine Hansberry (

To Be Young, Gifted, and Black by Lorraine Hansberry

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CBR13Bingo – UnCannon Here’s a list: This random list of things Lorraine Hansberry liked and disliked is delightful. It’s important to know first what this book is: it’s a collection of quotes, snippets, excerpts from a variety of Lorraine Hansberry’s unpublished writing, and you need to go in knowing that it’s a gut punch. It was edited and published after she died by her ex-husband Robert Nemiroff. The collection involves various dialogues, bits of speeches, songs, ideas, thoughts and diaries not otherwise published in her […]

Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott (1994)

Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott

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CBR13Bingo – Self-Care A collection of essays and memoir pieces connected to writing that shares wisdom and thoughts on both writing and publishing. Mostly this collection is focused on publishing fiction, the slight irony being that I would argue that this book, in solitude, and maybe some of the nonfiction recent pieces, are 100% of how people think of Anne Lamott’s writing in general, and not her fiction. That said, the advice is funny and humane and solid throughout. I wish Anne Lamott would just […]

River of Earth – James Still (1940)

River of Earth by James Still

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CBR13Bingo – Shelfie This is a 1940 novel by the Kentucky writer James Still. I learned about James Still from Lee Smith’s memoir Dimestore, where the older writer clearly had some positive influence over Lee Smith both in writerly ways and in personal ways. This novel is narrated by a seven year old boy who is watching from his perch as his family, his parents, and his neighbors deal with the realities of rural Kentucky life, the Great Depression, and just the regular vicissitudes of […]

Three by Jan Morris: Conundrum (1974

Conundrum by Jan Morris

In My Mind's Eye and Thinking Again by Jan Morris

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Cbr13Bingo – Rep Conundrum – 5/5 Stars Because I have read Jan Morris’s only novel (and only fiction)Last Letters from Hav, and its follow-up (often packaged together), Hav of the Myrmidons, I spent some time looking through her biography and bibliography. I knew of this book too, which dwells on her thinking, experiences, and ruminations about sex and gender, particularly her understanding as a child that she was trans (she uses the outmoded term “transsexual” in the book) and the journey that her to eventual […]



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