Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Dawn – An intriguing take on human-alien interactions

Dawn by Octavia Butler

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I first read the Xenogenesis saga of Octavia Butler when I was a teenager and it arrived with a ton of other books I ordered from some science fiction book club (I had just gotten a job and was a dumb kid, don’t judge). What I remembered most from the initial read was the use of cancer cells by the alien race, the Oankali, to reshape their own bodies which I thought was a brilliant concept (actually still think it is brilliant). Maybe I did […]

“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 […]

The Bearmuda Triangle

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

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Something this dire – a town of people so opposed to paying taxes that they become a country-wide hotspot for bear attacks – should not be this funny. Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling carefully walks the line between Bill Bryson and a VICE documentarian while spinning this wild story of a Free Town and the beasts- man and animal alike, within. This collection of people, carefully and deliberately documented by Hongoltz-Hetling, shoot themselves in the foot so many times and with such ferocity that it is amazing the […]

A Thorough Exploration of Misogyny

Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by Kate Manne

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BINGO: Book Club: Waterstones’ Ms Afropolitan Philosophy Book Club (2019) Best for: Those looking for a deeper look into what misogyny really is. In a nutshell: Philosopher Kate Manne explores different definition of misogyny, providing support for her hypotheses with case studies many of us will be familiar with. Worth quoting: “Sexism [is] the branch of patriarchal ideology that justifies and rationalizes a patriarchal social order, and misogyny as the system that polices and enforces its governing norms an expectations. So sexism is scientific; misogyny […]

This Cannot Continue

Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America by Kristian Williams

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BINGO: Shelfie Best for: Those new to the idea of police abolition, and who are interested in learning more about the history of policing in the US. In a nutshell: Author Williams provides a thoroughly researched examination of the brutally violent world of US policing. Worth quoting: “If we do the math, we see that the police kill almost seven times as often as they are killed. The fact is, the police produce far more casualties than they suffer.” “Despite its initial plausibility, the idea […]

It Can’t Be All About White Women

Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women White Feminists Forgot by Mikki Kendall

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BINGO: UnCannon: The author is a Black woman Best for: People who consider themselves feminists. In a nutshell: Author Mikki Kendall shares a variety of essays covering topics and areas that very much fall under the concept of feminism but that are often left out of the discussion by mainstream white feminists. Worth quoting: “Girls like me seemed to be the object of the conversations and not full participants, because we were a problem to be solved, not people in our own right.” “We have […]



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