Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Walking Dull

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

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I’m not sure if Zone One by Colson Whitehead is actually a Pulitzer Prize winner or not, but I can tell you one thing: I’ve made it to the 30% mark and I can go no further. I have never been bored so stiff by a zombie novel in all my days—and I’ve read a lot of zombie novels. This meandering, overwritten, richly-prosed-but-empty-on-characterisation slog has almost killed my love of reading. I’ve been stuck on it for over two months and yet, every time I […]

A beautiful Marilyn biography

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Full disclosure I received this from fellow Cannonballer Xoxoxoe as she frickin’ wrote/drew this. How cool is that?! All thoughts and opinions though are my own, but I’ll start with this one is definitely staying on my bookshelf. There’s not much to plot here, it’s a biography of Marilyn Monroe. We start with Norma Jean and work our way through to the end of her too short life. I really enjoy history, and especially Hollywood history (the podcast You Must Remember This is amazing y’all […]

Not Just Another Pretty Face.

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Full disclosure:I was given a free copy of this book to read and review. There was no implication that the review must be favorable. Could there be a better way to present Marilyn Monroe, a woman who loved to be photographed, than in a graphic novel packed with beautiful images of this beautiful woman? Using a visually arresting collage style, Elizabeth Periale brings a fresh eye and voice to the oft-told tragic story of America’s Bombshell. Having only a passing familiarity with Monroe’s life, the […]

Poor Marilyn

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I won the book, Unfinished…, from fellow Cannonballer Elizabeth Periale (also known as xoxoxoe) and I was excited to read it because Marilyn’s fame has always been interesting to me.  I’ve never obsessed over her like some, but it’s interesting to me how many people do, still, to this day, obsess over Marilyn Monroe.  Or, at least the image of Marilyn Monroe. Periale uses many of those images, along with quotes, by and about Marilyn, in this graphic novel. And she does so to great […]

So much more than that girl standing on the subway grate

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I was offered an advance copy of UNFINISHED: A Graphic Novel of Marilyn Monroe by Elizabeth Periale in exchange for a timely and fair review. Y’ALL. THIS THING IS FUCKING GORGEOUS. Why did we as adults give up one of the best parts of books? The illustration for goodness sake. I mean, how could it not be considering that its subject matter is one of the iconic beauties of the 20th Century? It’s more than that though. You can tell that a great deal of […]

An Image of an Image.

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Disclaimer: I received a copy of Unfinished through a CBR giveaway in return for a prompt and honest review. Other Disclaimer: The author is a Cannonballer, so I was going to find something nice about this book. I didn’t have to look hard, it is a fantastic graphic novel. I wouldn’t call myself a Marilyn Monroe buff, but I do know a lot about her. She is an icon and a cultural touchstone. As such, a lot of her humanity has been stripped away. You […]



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