Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A lovely end to a trilogy

The Earl Who Isn't by Courtney Milan

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Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: 2024 Summer Release Disclaimer! This was an ARC from the author. This has not affected my opinions or my review. I have also paid actual money for my own copy of the book because Courtney Milan is on “my pre-order immediately when she announces a new book” list. Andrew Uchida works very hard to collect and cultivate seeds, plants, and vegetables, and every time he learns of a plant or vegetable that one of the diverse residents of the little town […]

Fairy Tales: a genre by and for “we the people”

Old Wives' Fairy Tale Book by Angela Carter

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I picked up this fairy tale collection in Tim’s Books, a tiny off-the-path used bookstore in Provincetown, because it had Angela Carter’s name on it, and I’ve been dedicating my book-buying to hoarding collections by the best fairy tale scholars, especially the feminist ones. It has, as you can see, a delightfully dated cover, but its ideas are very radical and timeless. The book is a selection of fairy tales and folktales chosen by Carter (author of the brilliant The Bloody Chamber), highlighting some of the […]

Because misogyny has a thousand words for “unhinged bitch” but not a single one for “multiple female orgasm”

If You Can't Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury by Geraldine DeRuiter

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I thought it appropriate that, on the day of my Cannonball, I declare that I have a new hero: Geraldine DeRuiter. In 2019, she won the James Beard Foundation Award, in the category of Personal Essay Long Form, for her Everywhereist.com blog post titled “I Made the Pizza Cinnamon Rolls From Mario Batali’s Sexual Misconduct Apology Letter.” This is not why she is my hero. However, if you read this book you may understand why her story resonated with me. If You Can’t Take the […]

“A peace based on injustice is a treacherous sleep whose waking is death. Your honor lies in waking out of it.”

The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore

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This book was infuriating, but very interesting. If you’re looking to rage-out at the patriarchy, The Woman They Could Not Silence will certainly do the trick. But also, because Elizabeth Packard was a badass who changed things for thousands of people in her lifetime and many more into the future, you get a happyish ending as well to lift you back from your cleansing rage. Elizabeth Packard was committed to an asylum in the 1860s by her husband; because he said she was insane, she was […]

So, there used to be this thing called men….

Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal

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Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal is a graphic novel that I was thinking was going to be this uber feminist book that was all “yeah women, boo men!” And it is far from it. Okay, men don’t have the best of reputations, but they are not totally villainized. And except for Max (whomever he is), their sperm is still  here and useful (but we have figured out how to synthesize a way that women can be “sperm donors” or bone marrow donors). As one person […]

The Dark Corners of the Past

Great Scandals of the Victorians by Debbie Blake

Public Faces, Secret Lives by Wendy L. Rouse

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Great Scandals of the Victorians: Disreputable Stories from the Royal Court to the Stage – 3.5 stars For all that Victorians had a reputation for being straitlaced, they had their fair share of scandals – and some of them ended up having major effects on contemporary society, sometimes even driving forth social changes which still affect us today. I love a good gossip session about people I’ve never met, which is why history is one of my favorite subjects. In this book, we learn about […]



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