Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Is it the Harrison Ford kind of boss or the Tommy Lee Jones kind of boss? They’re both your dad, but which is the best spanker?”

Shit, Actually by Lindy West

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This book is an example of how even though you can have the same sense of humour and interests as someone, that doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy the same things the same way. I don’t get this book. At all. I don’t get the fanfare around it. I don’t get the raving reviews. It’s basically a series of modestly amusing if ancient jokes interspersed with just descriptions of what is happening in a movie, which you need to have seen to find any of the jokes […]

“In the omnidirectional orgy gardens of Vlaxnoid 7, no one cares about your arm flab.”

Shrill by Lindy West

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You get exactly what you paid for with this. I can’t say I’ve been particularly aware of West in the past. I’ve probably read some of her work before online but it’s pretty rare for me to look at the author byline so who knows. Still, West does a great job of weaving who she is and why she is writing this book into her essays such that even if you weren’t really aware of her before you don’t feel like you’ve entered a story […]

“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 […]

Love, Actually is not a good movie

Shit, Actually by Lindy West

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I found Shit, Actually by Lindy West on my trusty and much anticipated NPR’s Best Books of 2020 List. It looked like a fun, entertaining read with a little feminist twist, so I was happy to pick it up. Shit, Actually is a book filled with short essays. Each essay is a pithy review of a well-known movie. Actually, it’s less of review than it is a rehashing of the movie with commentary. It reminded me of CinemaSins, a Youtube channel that I find very entertaining (especially when I need to […]

Shit, Actually – Lindy West (2020)

Shit Actually by Lindy West

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This is a genuinely hilarious book that had me cackling repeatedly. I listened to the audiobook, which is worth it alone for hearing Lindy West do the Forrest Gump voices, but is extra charming because it becomes a kind of rifftrax/MST3K by proxy for most of the movies she works her way through. I don’t know if you have to watch all the movies in this book for this book to be as funny as it was for me, but I was fortunate that she […]

“Is Tommy Lee Jones 20 or 100 in this movie?”

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

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Official book description: New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author Lindy West was once the in-house movie critic for Seattle’s alternative newsweekly The Stranger, where she covered film with brutal honesty and giddy irreverence. In Shit, Actually, Lindy West returns to those roots, re-examining beloved and iconic movies from the past 40 years with an eye toward the big questions of our time: Is Twilight the horniest movie in history? Why do the zebras in The Lion King trust Mufasa–who is a lion–to look out for their best interests? Why […]



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