Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I go to the grave shared by my father and Jimmy. The question I get most, the one I hate, is why I went into his room. And why I helped people. Again and again, ‘Why did you do it? How?’ The answer is, How could I not?” (Bingo#1)

All the Young Men: a memoir of love, AIDS, and chosen family in the American South by Ruth Coker Burks, Kevin Carr O'Leary

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I read a lot of memoirs; I love listening to someone tell me their story. All the Young Men tells Ruth Coker Burks’ story as a young single mother in Hot Springs, Arkansas, who finds herself driven to the forefront of the AIDS crisis and becoming an activist in the fight against AIDS. Coker Burks story starts in the way that I think many of us hope we would respond – while visiting her friend recovering from cancer surgery, she notices nurses drawing straws to […]

“I did not know that there are miles between running out of things to say, and running out of the strength to say them.”

Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford

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When we had out August CBR Zoom Check-in I talked about this book and praised it while warning others away. It is still my prevailing view – Somebody’s Daughter is an absolutely fantastic piece of writing where Ashley C. Ford immerses the reader in her childhood, and it is not for the faint of heart or those who may not be in the most stable mental health space. You might know Ashley C. Ford from her podcasts or writings for outlets such as BuzzFeed, The […]

“Failure cannot be understood in theory, only in practice, sometimes over and over and over again.”

James Acaster’s Classic Scrapes by James Acaster

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Cbr13bingo Free! Bingo #2 – diagonal I received this book as a gift from my husband last year because we are big fans of British panel shows and comedian James Acaster, who is all over them. Look at me reading another memoir, my fourth in a row!! This one is clearly different from the previous three in that it is by a male and it is comedic. James Acaster is a thirty-something British comedian, perhaps not terribly well known in the US but a popular […]

A Pandemic Diary and a Chronicle of Grief

This Will All Be Over Soon: A Memoir by Cecily Strong

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Cbr13bingo Fauna, Bingo #1 (Flora to Fauna) I’m on a roll with memoirs, this being my third in a row. Cecily Strong of SNL fame spent 2020 the way many of us did — holed up at home trying to get through the early stages of the pandemic. She and a couple of friends left NYC for a house rental in a more remote area of New York where she struggled with fear of the virus and the loss of people close to her. Yet […]

This will be one of my CBR13 favorites

Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life From Scratch by Erin French

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Cbr13bingo Flora I would guess that fewer than 5% of the book reviews I’ve done over the years have been non-fiction, and I can only think of one that had anything to do with cooking, so reading a memoir about a chef (even though she calls herself a cook, not a chef) would seem way outside my area of interest. And yet, this memoir is probably going to be one of my CBR13 favorites. It is an incredible story of resilience in the face of […]

Remembering

Rememberings: Scenes From My Complicated Life by Sinead O’Connor

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Cbr13bingo Pandemic This book got a lot of attention when it was released a few months ago, largely because of a story O’Connor tells about Prince which puts him in a none-too-flattering light. As far as I’m concerned though this memoir is more impressive for the honesty and soul-bearing of its author. Full disclosure: I have been a fan of Sinead O’Connor since I first heard the single “Mandinka” in 1987/88. She is one of those female artists who have been kicked around over the […]



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