Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Great Title for an Average Feminist Essay Collection

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

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I downloaded this essay collection a year ago when I attended a work training, and felt like I was being over-explained to by the men presenting a class (I asked a few questions, so it might have also simply been that I was one of the only ones that seemed engage enough to pay attention and hence they directed everything directly to me).  I finally ended up reading it in February/March time frame because I was feeling slightly ignored by a different set of men […]

“The relationship between stitcher and yarn goes far beyond simply being prepared.”

A Stash of One's Own by Clara Parkes

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Clara Parkes is the author of several books on fiber, yarn, and knitting. In A Stash of One’s Own, she collects essays from various people involved in fiber crafts, almost all of them knitters, some of whom are also dyers and spinners. Each of these contributors describes what their stash means to them, which might include when it was started, what it consists of, how they add to it, and what makes them reduce their stash (however reluctantly). As far as I know, all of the contributors […]

Read. Re-read. Share. Repeat.

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I listened to most of this book on audiobook. Then I bought it as a paperback. Then I bought it on Kindle. So, suffice it to say, I’m a fan. I had heard of Roxanne Gay, and this book from a few close friends who sang its praises, but was finally compelled to pick it up as it was the book for the ANUW (Association of Northwestern University Women) book club pic of the month. (This makes three book clubs I am currently a member […]

I wish my younger self could have read this book.

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First and foremost, I love, maybe even adore, Coates writing.  He manages to weave narrative with fact and emotion with such grace and power.  If I could write like anyone, it would be Ta-Nehisi Coates. But I can’t write like Coates.  Even if we wrote with the exact same words, I could not write like him because I am not him.  For a long time, especially as a younger man, I believed that if I wanted to do something, it could be done and that […]

Bad feminist, good book

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Bad Feminist is a book of essays in a time where social justice is getting perhaps more mainstream positive press than any time before. While every thinkpiece in this vein will have detractors, such thinkpieces have more outlets and more exposure than they might have enjoyed even ten years ago, when blogging was an established medium for this kind of thing but the social justice corner was still just that — a corner. What that means is that Bad Feminist doesn’t necessarily cover new ground, […]

It looks like larva no matter how you cook it.

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  Laurie Notaro’s 8th book of essays, “The Potty Mouth at the Table,” is ostensibly about manners, but really it ranges from her weird obsession of buying fabric online to her friend coping with terminal cancer.  As with any book of essays, there are some hits and some misses but overall it is a decent bit of fluff from a pretty great writer.  Unfortunately it’s not her best work and I hope she gets her mojo back with her next book. I had to pull […]



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