Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

He had taken in the country, and in his eyes and his mind it had been changed, marked by his own individuality, and made part of him.

Out of Africa by Isak Denison

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CBR15PASSPORT (Stamp #1: Books from different countries. In between a lot of privileged nonsense, it is a love letter to Africa.)After reading Paula McClain’s Circling The Sun last year, I was not finished with the characters. So, I picked up this book to learn a little more about the real-life folks that inspired that historical fiction. This is a classic that I had never read, made into a famous movie, that I have never seen. Well trod territory here, but I’ll give it a go. A Danish […]

Let’s Make 2023 Monarchy Free

Spare by Prince Harry

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I wasn’t going to read “Spare” because memoir is one of my least favorite genres and celebrity/political memoirs are usually the worst in terms of quality and content. However, my anti-monarchist curiosity got the best of me after watching the gutter press devolve into hysterics in the lead-up to the book’s publication. It’s not surprising, given that Harry paints UK tabloid culture as the ultimate villain in his life story. If I were The Daily Fail or one of those other rags, I’d be trying […]

A Few Squirts of a Turkey Baster

Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings by Chrysta Bilton

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CBR15 Passport Challenge: New to you authors #1 Chrysta and her sister are the daughters of a dynamic and damaged woman, a single lesbian who yearned for a child in the rather unaccepting 1980s – and found her ideal sperm donor in a hair salon. But both Debra and Jeffrey hid many secrets from their children. There’s that oft-quoted opening sentence of Anna Karenina – “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” I thought of that quote, and how […]

To Thine Own Self Be True

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson

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All Boys Aren’t Blue is George M. Johnson’s memoir manifesto. I’d been hearing about it since it was tragically banned in way too many US states. Well, jokes on those haters who are way too obsessed with censorship. It was picked in September for my Mocha Girls Read book club and our Cannon Book Club. Through a series of essay chapters, we learn about George’s life from childhood to now. We learn about their identity issues that started with their name. In early childhood, the […]

“I own me!” A powerful memoir of healing from trauma

Sex Cult Nun by Faith Jones

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Thanks again to Jake for this Book Exchange gift! I tore right through this one, as it hits a lot of my interest areas and is well written. Sex Cult Nun details Faith Jones’ life growing up in the Children of God/The Family cult during the 80s and 90s. Having watched several documentaries and read about this group before, this was less of a shocking book for me than for someone who has no knowledge about the Children of God. For me, it was more […]

“If, for some unknown reason, you find yourself in a casino, always remember to tip your dealer.”

Last Night at the Casino: Volume 1 by Billy McCall

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I really like this zine so was thrilled to see that he had collected the first eight issues into one volume, along with some new material. I collect zines and especially love perzines and zines dealing with aspects of life I don’t have as much knowledge about, which casinos definitely fall under. Last Night at the Casino details Billy McCall’s experiences working as a casino dealer at a smaller casino in New Mexico, mainly working at the craps table. When the book begins, he’s just […]



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