Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

John Cooper Clarke presents

WHAT: new poems from the Poet Laureate of Punk by John Cooper Clarke

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I did not finish WHAT: new poems from the Poet Laureate of Punk, but I was maybe about half way before I stopped. I had not heard of John Cooper Clarke, but that did not stop me from trying it. After all, I haven’t had much luck with the poets I did  know or even the ones I liked, so why not try someone new? The poems have the elements I like (flowing text that makes sense without sounding artsy, understandable themes, and images are […]

A must read for folklore and pop culture enthusiasts

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc

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Amanda Leduc grew up on Disney just like many kids of my generation. But she grew up experiencing it quite uniquely. Leduc has cerebral palsy, so a world where beauty is judged by perfect dainty feet and graceful dancing is a world that doesn’t celebrate her. Disfigured is part memoir, part fairy tale study, and a beautiful thesis for disability justice. Leduc shares her extremely personal experience of being diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a young girl, of navigating bullying and crises of confidence through […]

Good old fashioned pop culture salutes

Villains' Vignettes Volume 1 by Drew Hayes

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Bingo 4: Hold Steady Drew Hayes has been one of very few authors who has been both reasonably consistent and prolific without getting dull; he’s also a favorite of mine, so for all those reasons, he counts as Holding Steady. What’s new is that Villains’ Vignettes Vol 1 is a story without a connecting plot building; the three tales are a bit long to be short stories, so maybe we’ll call them novelettes. The style somehow manages to be straightforward but still have snappy dialogue […]

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The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

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Earlier this year I reviewed Cyberville, Stacy Horn’s recounting of starting an online community in 1990s New York. That got me on a 90s entertainment kick in music, movies, and other books. (To be honest, I’m always on a 90s kick in music.) Klosterman’s The Nineties was an obvious followup read. While a lot of my pop culture interests are Chuck Klosterman-adjacent, this was the first time I’ve read one of his books. If his other reads are like this one, I’ll put them on […]

For the OG Sex and the City fans, if Samantha was the writer

Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer by Rax King

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Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer is a sweet, sex-positive collection of essays by Rax King. The author frames each essay as “about” a particular pop cultural artifact — Hot Topic, America’s Next Top Model, the Cheesecake Factory — and uses that as a jumping-off point for personal memoir. First, the good: she’s a very skilled writer, and even the chapters that are about cultural moments that I didn’t personally experience (e.g. Degrassi) are well-handled enough that I was able […]

“How can this be happening? You do so much yoga.” #CBRBINGO – Shelfie

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

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**30 Books in 30 Days** Book 20/30 This is my favorite thing John Green has written. I loved it so much I let it start getting me behind in reviews again. I kind of hope he never goes back to writing fiction. (In fact, in the introduction to this book he expresses the sentiment that he might not! I don’t have the book with me right now to reference, but he talks briefly about his frustration with readers confusing him with his characters, and how […]



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