Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

When will my reflection show / who I am inside (CBR 12 Bingo: Cannonballer Says)

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

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Thanks Lowercasesee for the recommendation from last year’s CBR, even if this was absolutely something I heard about from multiple sources as being up my alley, I’m giving you the credit for having the pull quote I liked best from the book as well. “…planning a wedding is the only period in a woman’s life where she is universally and unconditionally encouraged to conduct everything on her terms.” Huyup.  I was pretty damn easygoing as a bride (seriously, one of my bridesmaids was convinced we […]

eating vegetables: the essay collection

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

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Now here me out: there are lots of reasons to eat vegetables. Sometimes your body is in revolt because you’ve had nothing but pizza all weekend. Sometimes you’ve made a new commitment to “take better care” of yourself. Sometimes you just really want some kale, damn it. Sometimes you just want to smother some broccoli in neon-orange-movie-theater-nacho cheese. Vegetables are good for you, vegetables are tasty, they can be prohibitively expensive- especially if fresh, but sometimes you just have to fight your way through a […]

Memoirs and Essays

Nice Try: Stories of Best Intentions and Mixed Results by Josh Gondelman

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

Baby Don't Hurt Me: Stories and Scars from Saturday Night Live by Chris Kattan

So, Anyway... by John Cleese

Burn the Place: A Memoir by Iliana Regan

Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder by John Waters

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I apparently started this draft on 11/21 — time to catch up! (4 stars) Nice Try: Stories of Best Intentions and Mixed Results by Josh Gondelman I can’t figure out where I heard about this book — I thought it was on CBR but I can’t find any reviews. Anyway, I’d never heard of Josh Gondelman before picking up this book, but he turns out he’s damn funny. He used to write for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and also created the SeinfeldToday Twitter […]

The bingo card is CLOSED

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

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I’m on my work computer so I won’t get into the nitty gritty of my responses to some of this text but suffice to say that overall I really, really liked this essay collection. Do you enjoy feminist considerations of pop culture and our modern world, presented with wit and candor? Then grab Trick Mirror and be prepared to be both delighted and enraged (I mean, it’s feminist considerations of pop culture and our modern world, of course you’re going to be enraged). There are broad swaths of […]

Trapped in Our Generation

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

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I’ve been following Jia Tolentino’s work since her time at Jezebel. Her New Yorker pieces are always must reads for me, even when they cover subjects I’m not interested in. She’s one of the few writers I’ve made the effort to see in person, catching her while on tour promoting this book. We chatted about our mutual love of Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game, which she had written about a few months earlier. It’s taken me awhile to understand why exactly I like her work, especially considering I don’t […]



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