Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“If you are a shy one, then please try not to settle for living in your isolation cage.”

And Away... by Bob Mortimer

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CBR14Bingo: Funky (It’s a good adjective for Bob Mortimer) Honestly I find this cover scary and have to keep it turned over so I’m not confronted with Bob Mortimer’s face all the time, but I do think it sums up his wacky charm, as well as the dark undercurrent in his work. And Away… is a celebrity comedian memoir, but one by a very smart and thoughtful man, and it has a depth of feeling to it that other memoirs under the celebrity umbrella can […]

Gemini Soul

Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz

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I did not set out to read back to back hippie-esq A lister’s memoirs but Lenny Kravitz’s memoir, Let Love Rule, happened to become available on Overdrive the same week Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey was so here we are. If I had to choose between the two I would say Lenny’s story was more captivating and overall a better fit for my memoir preference. This is clearly a “first” memoir because he stops right as his first album is released but that is partly why it is […]

Alright, alright, alright…

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

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*taps microphone* Is this thing on? Last January I decided not to sign up for CBR12 because I was anticipating the arrival of my son and figured I wouldn’t have a lot of time to devote to reading and reviewing. Between maternity leave and a pandemic related furlough I spent 4 months trying to stay sane when the only person I saw all day, every day didn’t speak English and required me to wipe his butt 10 times a day. I don’t think I read […]

Not all rainbows in these celebrity memoirs

We're Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union

Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling (with Great Hair) by Rosie Perez

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I read We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union for my last in-person Mocha Girls Read meeting in March. This memoir is a collection of moments that are mostly linear with some flashbacks. Unlike Becoming, the chapters are not as detailed about her early childhood. The book is all about keeping it real and reflecting on her past with levity. We learn about her family and how she at a young age she looked after herself. With no supervision, Gabrielle got up to some […]

Life is Short, but it is Wide

In Pieces by Sally Field

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A year or so ago I won a copy of In Pieces during Cannonball Bingo. I was mildly pleased, as I like Sally Field and I like memoirs. I wasn’t excited enough to start reading it immediately, and in fact it took me a long time to read this, as I read it in fits and starts–mostly early in the morning on lazy weekends. Luckily, it’s an easy book to pick up again without forgetting what was happening when you left off. If you read […]

CBRBingo – Summer Read. More Poehler, please.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

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CBRBingo – Summer Read Reread July 2019 (third review). As I again turn to Amy Poehler in the summer (last time, was summer 2016) I would definitely call this the quintessential summer read. Great on the beach, fun and funny, Poehler is a rollicking good time. Aside from George Orwell’s 1984 and my annual Christopher Reading of “The Stupidest Angel” this is the only other book I have reread since I was a kid. It is equal parts memoir and self-help and Poehler is a […]



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