Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Now and then the images from those years come into alignment, and I see something…”

Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White by Lila Quintero Weaver

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I tend to think I have a pretty good handle on the state of the graphic novel/comic scene, which is why when I stumble across a great book like this that I missed, it thrills me and makes me think about what else is out there that I haven’t found yet. This was a random find at a used bookstore, which is often my favorite way to find a book. It’s like a little gift that suddenly pops into your life! I wonder if part […]

“A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.”

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

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If we- and now I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others- do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world It is time to listen. James Baldwin had a voice unlike any other. He transcends country, creed, and time. His work is astonishing and terribly important. The […]

A Tsunami of Oratory

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Sometimes it pays to remember the good ideas cannonballers and friends have so you can steal them outright to suit your purposes. You all should go back and read denesteak’s brilliant review from last January, she unpacks the world through her powerful viewpoint and it is more than worth your time. When I had a few hours to myself on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here in the States I remembered Dene’s review and the fact that I’m supposed to be finding a single sitting […]

I sat there listening to “We Shall Overcome,” looking out of the window at the passing Mississippi landscape

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Anne Moody’s The Coming of Age in Mississippi is not an easy book to read and certainly Ms. Moody did not have an easy life. She captures it with a somewhat ramshackle approach, which I appreciated because it read like someone recounting memories and impressions, rather than a carefully plotted reflection. Her parents were tenant farmers in Mississippi and she grew up in extreme poverty. They regularly ate just bread or just beans and her hunger throughout childhood certainly is a driver in her decisions […]

Make Good Trouble

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The March Trilogy, winner of the 2016 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, is a first-hand account of the civil rights movement in the United States as told by one of its leaders, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia. These graphic novels span the years 1960-65 and are presented as John Lewis’ recollections on January 20, 2009 — the day of President Obama’s first inauguration. This is an amazing memoir that is not only accessible to young readers, but would most likely be an eye-opener […]



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