Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

All the good stuff that wasn’t in your history books

Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving by Mo Rocca and Jonathan Greenberg

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Cbr14bingo Bodies – Bingo Mobituaries is a fascinating, eminently readable collection of humorist Mo Rocca’s obituaries for people and phenomena that didn’t get the attention they deserved at their passing. It’s the kind of book you can just pick up, open at random and immediately be drawn in. Certainly, some of the subjects of Mobituaries are people you have heard of (Audrey Hepburn, Herbert Hoover) but Mo Rocca will reveal things about them that might not have been featured in a traditional obituary or that […]

A series of existential crises packed into one easy-to-read tome! #CBRBINGO – Star

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

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Even though Stephen Hawking did an impeccable and brilliant job dumbing down all this physics and quantum mechanics and SCIENCE, I am still not science-smart enough to fully understand most of it. Good try, though, and it was so readable! And it gave me several existential crises. Like, okay, if you are just jonesing for a panic attack, pick up this book and when he starts in on the origin of the universe, just let your mind go there, see if you can encompass the […]

Tonight on the Titanic

A Night to Remember by Walter Lord

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CBR 14 Bingo: Cold It’s cold out on the water, cold enough for icebergs – which is half the trouble. Lord recounts the last night of the Titanic, for the moment just before it hit the iceberg to how the rescued passengers were picked up by the Carpathia. I know about as much about the sinking of the Titanic as I’ve gleaned from the movie, but it was fascinating to see myths set straight and learn more in this short book. Lord meticulously gathered firsthand […]

‘… the unleashed feminine, that awesome maelstrom of incredible sexual and physical power – multiple orgasm, gestation, birth, breastfeeding – so often feared, is dangerous and often leads to a terrible afterlife.’

A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America's Ghosts by Leanna Renee Hieber, Andrea Janes

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CBR 14 Bingo: Gaslight Ghosts glide by through the present time now, but their own time is the past, replete with grimy streets and gas(-)lighting. Authors and ghost tour guides Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Janes tell the stories of America’s female ghosts, discussing how they fall in the landscape of gender and time. I enjoy a good ghost story, which was why I requested this book on NetGalley. However, what I learned was far beyond the scope of merely spooky tales, and I really […]

Now I’m hungry

Dessert Person: Recipes and Guidance for Baking With Confidence by Claire Saffitz

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Cbr14bingo Dough BINGO (row 3) While I enjoy cooking shows, I don’t consider myself much of a cook. It isn’t that I’m not interested in improving my skills, it’s just that learning to cook full meals feels overwhelming. It seems like I’m always missing some important ingredient or kitchen tool, plus my kids have a variety of food allergies and intolerances that put some tough limits on me. Baking is one thing I have always enjoyed though and have been willing to take some risks […]

Gendered correctly by President Jimmy Carter.

Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place (A Transgender Memoir) by Jackson Bird

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I really enjoyed this transgender memoir, and I really enjoy Jackson Bird, as it turns out! Before we get to the millionaire-author-sized elephant in the room, this is a pretty basic memoir about Jackson’s life from birth to his late twenties, with a specific focus on his struggles with gender and sexuality before finally coming out as a trans man at age 25. This was an extremely solid book, told with clear uncomplicated prose, and an impressive sense of self-reflection. As a cis person, I […]



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