Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Freaks, Geeks, and Automobiles

Role Models by John Waters

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Oooh mama, this is not for the faint of heart! If you aren’t already a fan of John Waters and his coterie of misfits and outsiders then this is NOT the place to start! I first became aware of John Waters through the 1990 film Cry-Baby. It used to be on TV fairly frequently in the late 90s/early Aughts, and I would secretly watch bits and pieces of it when my parents weren’t in the room. I had the “flashback” button on the remote primed and […]

The Twenty-Six Year Old Virgin

Losing It by Emma Rathbone

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I’m a sucker for coming of age stories, and I’ve read and watched a lot of them, but the premise for this one brings an unexpected combination of things: A woman in her mid-twenties, formerly a collegiate swimmer, can’t figure out her life so she moves to SEC-country to live with a plate-painting aunt and to lose her virginity. It goes ok. The protagonist is Julia Greenfield, the kind of character that might live in Stars Hollow or the dorm in Undeclared. She’s drifting through […]

*bell tolls* SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

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Trust Exercise punched me in the gut, kicked me while I was down, and still I could not leave it alone.  I was once an insufferable THEEEEAAAAATER kid, and the teens on display here made my blood curdle- out of immediate and inescapable recognition. I was a pretentious brat until far too recently (still pretentious, just too old to be a brat) and roiling guilt flowed through my veins throughout the entire book. I have been working diligently on keeping my ideas off of other […]

A refreshing conversation about sexuality and spirituality…

Shameless by Nadia Bolz-Weber

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As someone who grew up in the Christian tradition in the 90s, this was a book I am very thankful for. It was not uncommon in the circles of my youth to have any conversations about sex include all of the following: don’t even THINK about sex until you are married…before marriage you need to suppress your sexuality, be ultra-modest, and be careful to not tempt the boys… when you DO get married tho, flip that switch and unleash your inner nympho… oh, and also, […]

Um…Hockey?

Amazons: An Intimate Memoir by the First Woman Ever to Play in the National Hockey League by "Cleo Birdwell" (Don DeLillo)

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Well then. I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time and I’ve tried many times. I’m a diehard New York Rangers fan and I thought a fictional take on what it would be like to be a female Ranger would be a blast. But after 10 pages, I soon realize that’s not what “Cleo Birdwell” (aka Don DeLillo) is going for here. This book is really about sex. Lots and lots of sex. Sexual exploration, etc. Which is fine. I’m not a prude. […]

“I fell in love at a bad time.” Clio in Orpheus Girl

Orpheus Girl by Brynne Rebele-Henry

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#cbr11bingo #remix First, I will say, this book may have some trigger moments (The italics is taken from Good Reads: There are scenes in this book that depict self-harm, homophobia, transphobia, and violence against LGBTQ characters. As well as the images of the “treatments”). And then I will say that this review is not all positive and possibly not politically correct. It might go against what you personally believe, but this whole review is how I feel about Brynne Rebele-Henry’s book Orpheus Girl. There is […]



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