Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Stick with the pieces; they’re long but worth it.

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

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Jia Tolentino has put together a collection of essays that span from modern womanhood to the Internet. The essays cover a myriad of topics, yet Tolentino found a way throughout all of her essays to find some throughlines. At the end of the collection, I felt that I had read a full complete collection despite the huge swath of topics. Tolentino very, very clearly sees many problems in the world and is able to articulate those issues clearly. She makes connections between problems in this […]

News from back then

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

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I’d previously read and loved The White Album, so when I saw Slouching Toward Bethlehem come up in a kindle sale I was very quick to click. A collection of essays from the the 1960’s, as with any book of essays this was something of a mixed bag for me, and having been born 10 years after its publication (as well as being English) I must admit that unfamiliarity with some of the people, places and things being written about meant I didn’t quite get […]

Sure, Sex is Fun, But, Have You Ever Listened to Samantha Irby Read Her Own Book?

Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby

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BINGO: Green Best for: Anyone who enjoys clever, interesting essays that will make them laugh. In a nutshell: Author Irby is back with her third collection of essays, which cover what her life is like these days, as well as just some hilariously repetitive takes on the exact same phrase. Worth quoting: “Sure, sex is fun, but have you ever used a really absorbent towel?” Why I chose it: I was looking for a book to listen to while running, and realized I both hadn’t […]

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 […]

“I often described my sudden shift in self-awareness as feeling as if a demon had entered my room in the middle of the night, startled me awake by whispering, ‘What if you were a man, sort of?’ into my ear, then slithered out the window before I could ask any follow-up questions.”

Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

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This would honestly be five stars except for a handful of essays/interludes that were too experimental and obscure for me to get anything out of them. I’m going to keep this review short and sweet for a couple of reasons, the first being that the time for me to have said something detailed, thoughtful, and incisive about it would have been back in late April when I first finished it. That time has now long passed. The second reason being that I’m not sure I […]

“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 […]



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