Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Still No Kids For Me, Thank You

Why Have Kids by Jessica Valenti

by Leave a Comment

I first became aware of Jessica Valenti back around undergrad when I started reading a few feminist blogs, Feministing being one of them.  Feministing was never my favorite one – it was more like reading a collection of news, reporting on lots of different things with multiple posts a day while other blogs had fewer articles but more in depth analysis of those topics. I don’t remember if Valenti stood out to me, or if she even posted that much or was more involved in […]

And yet, not penetrating

by Leave a Comment

It’s weird rating a book whose viewpoints so closely align with my own so low, but I kind of have to.  It amounts to a lot of glib “can you believe this shit?!” recitation of facts that a) won’t convert any skeptics or b) surprise any believers.  I’d like to think that some of it is due to the times a’changing, but really the main changes in the 15 or so years since the publication date are that gay marriage is legal and that women […]

Personal account of growing up female

by Leave a Comment

“We have to walk through the rest of our day knowing that our discomfort gave someone a hard-on.” Sex Object (2016) by Jessica Valenti was another book I found on NPR’s list of Best Books from 2016. The list has led me to quite a few good books, and I am usually a fan of a good feminist memoir, so I picked it up. In it, Valenti discusses details of her childhood and adult life, showing what it’s like to live when men use you first as an […]

Sex Object: A ( ball bustingly honest ) Memoir

by 3 Comments

Jessica Valenti is one of a select group of Generation X feminist bloggers who have cemented their careers online – She is a force to be reckoned with, after publishing a litany of feminist tomes ( Full Frontal Feminist, He’s a stud she’s a slut ) Sex Object is her brutally honest, darkly funny memoir. By retelling a series of formative events in her life, Valenti describes what toll everyday sexism takes on a young woman’s life. The events that helped shape her confident persona […]

Hmmmm.

by Leave a Comment

The day this book (which I had pre-ordered) was released, it was in the 80s out. I was walking home from work wearing two tank tops and covered with a sweater, because even though I was walking 1.5 miles home (uphill) in 80+ degree weather, I have big boobs, and those of us with big boobs know that hot weather clothing and a large chest don’t mix well if one wants to make it through the day without leers and snide comments. Of course, that’s […]

Motherhood, am I right?

by 3 Comments

I reviewed another of Jessica Valenti’s books (“The Purity Myth”) for last year’s Cannonball Read, and she actually acknowledged my review on Twitter. That was a very happy day. I knew about this book but hadn’t read it; I discovered it on Audible on Friday ended up listening to it pretty much straight through. Ms. Valenti is a feminist author and mother of her young daughter Layla. Layla was born SUPER early, spending her first weeks in the NICU. Ms. Valenti spends time talking about […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo