Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The World Tries to Make Us Commodities, but We are Human.

Plum by Cate C. Wells

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When we first meet Jo-Beth Connoly, aka Plum, she’s at work. Adam Wade is watching her give his step brother and business partner a blow job in a private room at The White Van, a strip club run by the Steel Bones Motorcycle Club. Adam’s brother tries to short Plum on money and a fight ensues. Adam gives Plum more money than she’s owed to settle the issue. Plum is concerned Adam may think they have some sort of pay in advance thing going. Adam […]

“I must make up my mind which is right – society or I”

Et dukkehjem (A Doll's House) by Henrik Ibsen

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I don’t know if a spoiler warning for a nearly 150-year-old play is necessary – but I will be revealing significant plot points when writing about this historical drama, so if you want to remain unspoiled, go read the play (it’s only three acts, it’s a relatively quick read) or watch a dramatisation, and come back when you’re done. Nora and Torvald Helmer are a middle-class couple living in Christiania (what Oslo was named for a few centuries in the before times) in the late […]

My body was built to wage war.

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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“Just smile and nod,” Gwen says. “How hard is that?” “Very,” I say. “I hate half these people. I hate half of all people” ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Carrie Soto Is Back CBR16 Bingo: Games It’s July 7th and I’m in the middle of a hot tennis summer. After finishing Carrie Soto is Back, I watched Challengers. I’m also reading a WIP fanfic that has hot people playing tennis, falling in love while playing tennis, tennis as a metaphor for failure, redemption, communication (you get […]

Because misogyny has a thousand words for “unhinged bitch” but not a single one for “multiple female orgasm”

If You Can't Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury by Geraldine DeRuiter

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I thought it appropriate that, on the day of my Cannonball, I declare that I have a new hero: Geraldine DeRuiter. In 2019, she won the James Beard Foundation Award, in the category of Personal Essay Long Form, for her Everywhereist.com blog post titled “I Made the Pizza Cinnamon Rolls From Mario Batali’s Sexual Misconduct Apology Letter.” This is not why she is my hero. However, if you read this book you may understand why her story resonated with me. If You Can’t Take the […]

The real happy ending is that she got to eat the whole plate of cheese.

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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“Since when do you wear dresses?” he said, the second he saw her. “Ugh,” Kit said, frowning. How were you supposed to change—in ways both big and small—when your family was always there to remind you of exactly the person you apparently signed an ironclad contract to be?” ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising I’ve read two TJR books in the past two months. I plowed through both of them within seventy-two hours. Addictive is the only way I know how to describe them. Nina […]

Not every story leaves the teller unharmed

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

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“The bards all sing of the bravery of the heroes and the greatness of your deeds: it is one of the few elements on which they all agree. But no one sings of the courage required by those of us who were left behind.” ― Natalie Haynes, A Thousand Ships The more I read, the more I write, and the more I consume all forms of storytelling from films, to TV, to poetry, the more I realize how unfamiliar I am with the bases for […]



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