Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I’m not sure what the difference is between sleeping and time travel”

Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson

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4.5 stars CBR13 Bingo: Rep (features honest and sometimes graphic descriptions of life with a variety of mental and chronic illnesses) It’s no secret that Jenny Lawson, known online and to her followers as The Bloggess, suffers from a large number of ailments, both physical and mental. She has dealt with various kinds of chronic illness throughout her life and manages to be mostly very light-hearted and humourous about it. I chose to get this book in audio, because Jenny Lawson narrates her own books, […]

when I hold you like I hold that bakelite in my hands

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

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Can you really like a book while still strongly disliking nearly everyone in it? I found Landline to be compelling and affecting, but I was driven to states of near agony by the overall behavior of the protagonist and almost everyone else in her orbit. The setup: Georgie McCool (a name that could be very silly, but as a person with a seemingly “fake name” I am on board) is a writer on a cheesy TV sitcom. She and her writing partner, Seth, have been working […]

soft-core misery porn

Turbulence by David Szalay

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An older woman is on a plane. She and her seatmate are strangers. There is a bout of – wait for it – turbulence, that inserts her into her seatmate’s life. So it begins; a series of lives briefly touching lives from one story to the next. I’m sure that I was meant to feel something while reading this; something was supposed to catch my breath, quicken my heart rate- it was supposed to hit emotionally. Really, I just felt Szalay going through the motions. […]

Love Drives Out Fear

Beyond Awkward Side Hugs: Living as Christian Brothers and Sisters in a Sex-Crazed World by Bronwyn Lea

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When I was newly married one of my local churches gave a great series of sermons about marriage. There was helpful advice about mutual service and building lives and support systems together. In retrospect, one piece advice always bothered me, though. It was a variation on The Billy Graham Rule. Billy Graham famously wouldn’t be alone with a woman who wasn’t his wife, in an effort to flee from any hint of sexual immorality, I suppose. (He also made his finances reviewable by others to […]

“I can remember how grown-up I felt then, and earlier, since about nine. Because we age one way, in one direction, every age we are is the most grown-up we’ve ever been.”

Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sara Pascoe

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Sara Pascoe is here for you. There is no stone she won’t turn over and no story she won’t tell, because she is going to use her embarrassments, misunderstandings, failures, and larks to help you learn. If you are looking for a medical textbook on what it means to be a human woman then go ahead and look elsewhere. If you want a smart and unflinching comedian to share her life story with you while looking back through biology, history, and cultural norms in order […]

Her Voice

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

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Carmen Maria Machado’s voice is a fine-honed instrument. She reads In the Dream House, her memoir of receiving abuse in a same-sex relationship, at a volume just above a whisper. She is hushed, quick, and measured yet still barreling down. Her voice is arresting. You will stop dead-still to catch her every intake of breath. She is a force to be reckoned with. I am in awe of her strength; her strength to survive, her strength to document, and her strength to share her darkest […]



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