Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About allisonata

CBR11 participant

Avid reader and writer in Northern California. Interests range from history to YA to NY Times best-sellers to graphic novels. Trying to decolonize my bookshelf and make sure women get at least equal time.

allisonata's Reviews:

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> Articles by: allisonata

Let Your Life Be a Counter Friction to Stop the Machine

This is Not a Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook by Extinction Rebellion

August 21, 2019 by allisonata Leave a Comment

Welcome to the Anthropocene era, the fossil fuel-powered nightmare of our own making. Our hot and crowded planet has hit Defcon 3. Right now, a record number of fires is burning down the Brazilian rainforest, threatening three million endemic plant and animal species. Mass bleaching in the heat-stressed Great Barrier Reef has reduced baby coral by 89% since 2016. Okjökull is the first (but not the last) glacier to disappear from Iceland. Last month Paris hit 109º, the hottest temperature ever recorded in the city, […]

Filed Under: Non-Fiction Tagged With: activism, cbr11, civil disobedience, climate change, environmentalism, Extinction Rebellion

allisonata's CBR11 Review No:31 · Genres: Non-Fiction · Tags: activism, cbr11, civil disobedience, climate change, environmentalism, Extinction Rebellion ·
· 0 Comments

I Have Always Imagined that Paradise Will Be a Kind of Library

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

August 19, 2019 by allisonata 2 Comments

Have you ever felt that a book was written just for you? Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is my Platonic ideal: a novel by an Elder Millennial, set in an alternate San Francisco Bay Area populated by talented, curious people, weird-but-plausible technologies, and endless shelves of books. By the time I discovered the in-story trilogy of fantasy novels and the credible centuries-old secret society, I committed to becoming a Sloan completist. Our initially hapless first-person hero Clay Jannon is looking for a job, any job. His […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: bibliophile, bookseller, cbr11, Robin Sloan, San Francisco, secret society

allisonata's CBR11 Review No:30 · Genres: Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: bibliophile, bookseller, cbr11, Robin Sloan, San Francisco, secret society ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments

Reproductive Freedom and the Apocalypse

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

August 5, 2019 by allisonata Leave a Comment

  Content warning: sexual violence, stillbirth A worldwide plague kills nearly everyone on the planet. A midwife wakes in a San Francisco hotel. (It’s practically “28 Days Later.”) She stocks up on antibiotics—and, critically, birth control—and walks into an extra-hellish hellscape. Since females experienced the highest mortality rate, the rare woman or girl that survives is a treasure. Commodity. Object. The midwife trains herself to be self-sufficient. She carries a gun. However, the key to her survival is her avoidance of other people—that is, men. […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Horror, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: #plague, cbr11, horror, meg elison, pandemic, post-apocalyptic nightmare fuel, ReadWomen

allisonata's CBR11 Review No:29 · Genres: Fiction, Horror, Speculative Fiction · Tags: #plague, cbr11, horror, meg elison, pandemic, post-apocalyptic nightmare fuel, ReadWomen ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

10 Reasons to Get Out of Bed in the Morning

Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon

May 28, 2019 by allisonata 1 Comment

Within two minutes of waking up, I remember things I’d rather not: raging wildfires, hurricanes, desperate refugees, white nationalists, dead gray whales washing up onshore. Keep Going is a gift, an emotional stain remover, the pep talk  I didn’t know I needed in order to tamp down my despair and resume making art. Kleon knows the struggle is real. (Good luck staying loose and open when the outside world is invading every level of your consciousness!) Here is a person who shows his work on […]

Filed Under: Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Non-Fiction Tagged With: advice, art, austin kleon, cbr11, inspiration, Keep Going

allisonata's CBR11 Review No:28 · Genres: Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Non-Fiction · Tags: advice, art, austin kleon, cbr11, inspiration, Keep Going ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

Like a Sports Movie, In Reverse

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

May 17, 2019 by allisonata 1 Comment

Football is the quintessential American sport. Two disciplined armies meet out on an open field. Highly trained men in uniform wallop the enemy, denying them ground. Our super soldiers bash their brains in—and sometimes break their necks—for our entertainment. And we cheer. Because who doesn’t love a proxy war? It’s tribal. Downright primal. Are you entertained?! *checks notes* Pardon. Apparently, baseball is America’s game. A sport that considers the no-hitter, a game in which absolutely nothing happens, as the pinnacle of the art. A sport […]

Filed Under: Book Club, Fiction, Sports Tagged With: Baseball, CBR, Chad Harbach, college

allisonata's CBR11 Review No:27 · Genres: Book Club, Fiction, Sports · Tags: Baseball, CBR, Chad Harbach, college ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

A Child’s Introduction to Pure Evil

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

May 16, 2019 by allisonata Leave a Comment

I live two blocks away from a stellar children’s book store. It’s a habit of mine to visit several times a month. I enjoy keeping tabs on what the kids are reading these days (graphic novels) and which titles have staying power. The pale blue cover of Number the Stars is always on display in the middle reader section. The fact that Lois Lowry, an author born in 1937, still has books occupying prime shelf space is an amazing feat—but not surprising to me, given […]

Filed Under: Fiction, History, Young Adult Tagged With: cbr11, Denmark, europe, Holocaust, Lois Lowry

allisonata's CBR11 Review No:26 · Genres: Fiction, History, Young Adult · Tags: cbr11, Denmark, europe, Holocaust, Lois Lowry ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
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