Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Love Story Even a Non-Romance Person Can Fall For

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

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Romance is really not my genre; for one thing I’m very much ace and spent most of my growing up time wondering what was wrong with all the story people who apparently have no self-control with the lust and related emotional stuff. However, sometimes, there comes along a romance that has enough other elements, like actually interesting characters, plot, and/or setting, that I can appreciate the whole thing, romance focus or not. Winter’s Orbit is one of these kinds of stories. In some ways this […]

Whistleblowers are an integral part of any free society

The Unarmed Truth: My Fight to Blow the Whistle and Expose Fast and Furious by John Dodson

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Around the middle of January, I kept seeing a meme getting passed around that listed the last several presidents and their biggest controversies. I don’t remember all of them, but the basic gist was that Republican presidents have been riddled with controversial policies and/or behavior (Watergate, Iran/Contra, Iraq, the entirety of Trump’s presidency…). What stood out to me, though, was that the most controversial part of Obama’s presidency, according to this meme, was that he wore a tan suit once. Even though this was just […]

Take Grandma’s advice: “When somebody opens a door to you, go forward. “

The Only Woman in the Photo: Frances Perkins & Her New Deal for America. by Kathleen Krull

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You know about the New Deal. But do you know the people behind it? Do you know the woman who was usually not only the only women in the photo, but the only woman in the room, the only one seeing the injustices on a human level, seeing what must be done to fix it? She took her privilege and tried to help. And Kathleen Krull shows that in The Only Woman in the Photo: Frances Perkins & Her New Deal for America.  Who was […]

The Only Winner Here is Corn.

The Scientist and The Spy by Mara Hvistendahl

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On one hand, I enjoyed reading The Scientist and the Spy, really. Mara Hvistendahl has given us a really compelling account of economic espionage. But Christ, this book is a sticky one. It covers multiple topics I’m interested in: genetics, agriculture, international relations and intellectual property—and political shit-storms. But it also makes me want to bang my head against the wall while crying out ‘everyone’s a pack of arseholes’ because that was basically the only conclusion I could come to. But with a story this […]

The reality I would gladly trade in for our own.

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

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On the book itself (or at least the Amazon page itself) this book is labeled as “pure love, pure joy, a pure escapist read.” YES. YES AND YEEEEEES. I received this gem of a book from my CBR Book Exchange buddy this year (thanks Bonnie!!) and was delighted. It is a GREAT book to be gifted. It was vaguely on my radar, but I didn’t have a real intention of reading it as I’m newer to romance but I read it in two freaking days […]

“There’s nothing quite like the futility of being seventeen in an election year.”

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli/Aisha Saeed

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Official book description: YES Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state senate candidate—as long as he’s behind the scenes. When it comes to speaking to strangers (or, let’s face it, speaking at all to almost anyone), Jamie’s a choke artist. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.   NO Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is canceled, and now […]



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