Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Perhaps the most American of novels.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

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In 1905, Thomas Dixon’s The Clansmen: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan was published to massive sales and widespread scorn. The book was supportive of segregation, and glorified not only the Confederacy, but the Klan it was purporting to tell the story of. One year later, mobs of white Atlantans massacred African Americans following lurid and unfounded accusations made in local newspapers about the alleged rape of four white women at the hands of black men. At least 25 black people were murdered […]

Despite the title of the book, this was not a good time

Bacchanal by Veronica G. Henry

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BINGO – Travel The G. B. Bacchanal Carnival is a travelling carnival that makes stops all around the Great Depression Era South. They have everything a carnival should: tasty treats, games that may or may not be rigged, dangerous feats from dazzling performers, and oddities from around the world. This carnival just happens to be owned by a demon from the underworld who feeds on children’s souls trying to find the one person who can stop her. Liza Meeks is the newest addition to the […]

A beautiful portrait of a white outsider in 1930s Great Depression Kentucky

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

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Cussy Mary is a book woman for her tiny hill country town in rural Kentucky. She packs up books, magazines, and newspapers donated from major metropolitan cities and takes them to her patrons on her route as a part of the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. She is largely well-liked and respected for the work she does and the opportunities she brings to an often ignored community through education and reading. She’s also blue. Not metaphorically sad and down. She has blue skin […]

CBR Bingo – Pajiba – A little shorter woulda been a lot better.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

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This book is/was everywhere. EVERY. WHERE. It was recommended to me a number of times and was featured on Pajiba Archives in the article “What are the most talked about books of 2019 so far?” It was almost the case to choose being obstinate in the face of enthusiasm: I almost didn’t want to read it BECAUSE everyone was talking about it. However, I decided to dive it and I now understand the hype. It was, good; however, it just wasn’t my cup of tea, […]

Lies, love, and facing reality

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It’s Juneteenth, which makes an incredibly appropriate day to review Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley. This book was on my radar since it first came out in 2014, but it took a wee bit of time to actually find time to read it. (Seriously, on this site, I know I’m not the only one who’s reading list is longer than the time I’ll ever possibly have to read over the course of my entire life…) What first drew me in was that the […]

Never thought a John Grisham novel could make me cry

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Becoming a parent (which my wife and I did two years ago) does some strange and unexpected things to your brain. I’ve spent the entirety of my time on this earth identifying with the kid in every parent-child relationship. I’ve always seen myself as the kid. I had no other perspective from which to peer at the world. And then…..it shifted. Given those same parent-child situations, I now see it from the other side. This is such a simple shift in perspective, but there’s a […]



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