Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

More Essential Reading

Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male Power by Ijeoma Oluo

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Best for: All the people, but I think white men really need to read and sit with this one. In a nutshell: Author Oluo explores the ways in which the elevation of the mediocrity of white men harms everyone (including white men). Worth quoting: “What I’m saying is that white male mediocrity is a baseline, the dominant narrative, and that everything in our society is centered around preserving white male power regardless of white male skill or talent.” “How can white men be our born […]

You should read this book even though I did not like it

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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Aster is low-deck woman on the spaceship Matilda. The citizens of Matilda are stratified across racial lines: darker people of color on the lower decks with lighter skinned citizens occupying the upper decks. As you might guess, the lower decks have increased police presence and poor living conditions. The upper decks have more freedom and significantly better quarters and living conditions. Sound familiar? The citizens of Matilda were long ago promised that they were on a journey to a new land, yet that promise seems further and further […]

The Voices of the Ignored

The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History, Immigrants, women, & African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle by Margaret S. Creighton

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Until I joined a reenactment group about 6 years ago, I’d never had any interest in the Civil War since its most popular focus is white men shooting each other. Now, this isn’t to say that the experiences of the white, male soldiers consumed by the jaws of war aren’t important, it just means I don’t particularly care what Gen. So-&-So did at noon on July 2nd, 1863. And unfortunately, at least at Gettysburg, ninety-nine percent of the focus is what white men did in […]

“Caste is insidious and therefore powerful because it is not hatred, it is not necessarily personal. It is the worn grooves of comforting routines and unthinking expectations, patterns of a social order that have been in place for so long that it looks like the natural order of things.”

Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

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This was really interesting to read back to back with How to Be an Antiracist; they shed light on each other in weird ways. But they are also two very different books! My main takeaway from Caste is that Isabel Wilkerson is a great writer. I’m set to read her first book next month, and I’m now looking forward to it even more. She employs metaphor and other literary techniques in a way that you don’t normally see from non-fiction writers. It brings a depth […]

Thoughtful meditation on science, faith and family

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

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Yaa Gyasi is best known for her critically acclaimed first novel, Homegoing.  Unlike Homegoing, which I gather has a broad sweep in terms in geography and time (its in my TBR pile!), Transcendent Kingdom is narrowly focused on one woman, Gifty, in her adolescent to early adult years.  Although the scope of the novel expands a little to include Gifty’s immediate family and a few friends, the novel remains focused on her experiences with these additional cast members- we see them through her eyes. We […]

A personal view of intersectional feminism, narrated by the author.

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall

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This was a great audiobook. It was narrated by the author, and she has a really good reading voice. There were parts where her intonation changed in a weird way, but overall she narrates the book in a clear, strong voice, and with appropriate emotion. (Some authors try to read their own books, and it doesn’t work out so well for them.) This was an excellent book that focuses on the areas that “mainstream feminism”, aka middle class, mostly white, doesn’t take into account. Some […]



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