Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Petticoat Government

Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries by Nan Sloane

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‘I told him I was not a felon, and that I would not be treated as one. His answer was, that there were many women in Newgate who had been well off, and who were obliged to sleep on the floor: there have been two hundred at once sleeping on those mats. Two hundred did you say? Yes. Then more shame for you. Had I been one of them I would have excited a rebellion against you…’ The years between the advent of the French […]

Fuck The Patriarchy

The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy

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Best for: Women. People with women in their lives. Feminists. In a nutshell: Author and activist Eltahawy makes the case for the sins women should embrace as we seek to destroy the patriarch. Worth quoting: “I don’t want to be protected. I want to be free.” “I refuse to be civil with someone who refuses to acknowledge my humanity fully.” “But who indoctrinated those Republican white women? Who taught them to submit to patriarchy? Those are questions often reserved for Muslima women, but I demand […]

Two Entirely Different Kinds of Pirates

Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao by Helaine Becker, Ill. Liz Wong

What Isabella Wanted: Isabella Stewart Gardner Builds a Museum by Candace Fleming Ill. Matthew Cordell

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But Fortune cares nothing for your dreams. She takes up your life in her cup and shakes it so hard your teeth rattle in your head and your heart roars like a dragon in your chest. Then she throws the bones onto her table of lacquer and jade. Your fate is sealed. – Helaine Becker, Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao Did I know much about Zheng Yi Sao before I read this? Only that she existed, reigned over the South China Sea […]

Burnout, or, Why to Stick It to the Man

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Amelia Nagoski

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This is my “Self Care” bingo entry.  I just finished reading Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski. I’ve read so many self-help/self-empowerment/self-care books, that I feel like Burnout wasn’t necessarily presenting me with information that I didn’t already know, but it was putting together information that I already know in a surprising way.  Burnout is written by two sisters – Emily and Amelia Nagoski – and it is specifically aimed at woman-identified people and the specific stressors we […]

“The fact that they have families and parents . . . is why they shouldn’t do these things, not why we should forgive them.” #CBRBINGO – Uncannon

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

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I have had terrible luck with lit-fic so far this year, so it’s nice that my streak is finally broken. This book was great. Depressing, but great. And I never would have picked it up on my own except that it qualified nicely for the novel in translation category (non-European) for the Read Harder Challenge, and it was short! And very well regarded. So thanks, Read Harder! Doing your job. Kim Jiyoung is a young mother living in Korea. She quit her job in marketing […]

“Are there really public servants out there sucking terrorist tongues for my freedom?”

Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West

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I love movies. I love watching them, talking about them, listening to other people talk about them, and eating too much popcorn while watching them. Is there really such thing as too much popcorn? YES! In our home, we call it “pop corn belly” and it is a scourge against humanity. I am an equal-opportunity movie watcher: good, bad, ugly- I don’t care. Give ’em to me and I’ll find something to enjoy. I can be a snob when I have to, but really? I […]



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