Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“There’s no uniformity in the panoply of butts.”

Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke

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I have to say that given the cover of this book, and the title, I was expecting the book to be more…tongue in cheek? But this book isn’t that. Rather than being a fun “backstory” of our fascination with butts, it’s a pretty straightforward gender and race studies critique of Western pop culture’s fascination with butts. The misdirection is certainly the fault of the publisher, as the author is very clear on the book’s intentions from the Introduction on. With that bit of business behind […]

Re-thinking “Asian American”.

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

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I set my entire June TBR list over two months ago, including this book, but it turned out to be an eerily prescient choice. When I was reading the bits about the 1992 L.A. riots, and the parts where she directly addressed anti-back racism in America, I felt such a weird sense of momentous synchronicity. Anyway, the book. This was nearly a five star read for me, and will likely be a five star book for many. My reasons for not giving it the full […]

“There’s a particular feeling in your body when something goes right after a long time of things going wrong. It feels warm and sweet and loose.”

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

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Lily King is a magician. She takes an unassuming title like Writers and Lovers and crafts something beautiful, messy, and utterly captivating. Her last novel, 2014’s Euphoria, was my favorite read of the last decade- I have to admit that I was initially disappointed when Writers and Lovers was announced after the evocative fever of Euphoria.  A 30-something woman navigates creative struggle, debt, grief, and relationships? All I have to do is shout out of my front door and a line of people that fit the description […]

Ode to the Idiot Box

I Like to Watch: Arguing my Way Through the TV Revolution by Emily Nussbaum

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I’m here because of the critics. The only reason I am even aware of the Cannonball Read is because I am a devotee of Pajiba’s cultural criticism. Roxana Hadadi, Kristy Puchko, and Kayleigh Donaldson have guided me to so many good films and books (at least two future Cannonball contributions) that they’ve become my Holy Trinity of artistic revelation. So, it’s probably appropriate that one of my first contributions to Cannonball is I Like to Watch: Arguing my Way Through the Television Revolution by Pulitzer […]

Literature was the passport to enter a larger life

At the Same Time by Susan Sontag

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Before I read this book I had a lot of name recognition for Susan Sontag (thank you liberal arts degree) but wasn’t that familiar with her actual writing.  At the Same Time is a collection of her essays and speeches, published posthumously in 2007, and comprising three categories: 1) essays about obscure literature; 2) essays about 9/11; and 3) speeches Sontag gave on varied themes (literature, courage, etc.). Given that the major unifying thread for this collection is loose- essay or speech- my opinions on […]

Well, I think I’ll go and oil my gun.

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Opening salvo, hot take: everything Tom Stoppard has ever written is incredible; this isn’t his best work. The Real Inspector Hound is the first live production of a Stoppard play I ever saw, followed about a year and a half later by Arcadia. So, I will always be grateful to Hound for preparing me, because otherwise Arcadia might have melted my brain, and working directly with Tom (humblebrag) on The Coast of Utopia would have been the actual death of me. Hound is a delight. […]



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