Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“Let me say, there is nothing wrong with a younger woman marrying an older man. However, there is definitely something wrong with anyone marrying Norman Mailer.”

It Ended Badly: Thirteen of the Worst Breakups in History by Jennifer Wright

by Leave a Comment

30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 3 Book 12/30 As always with Jennifer Wright, I laughed the whole book. She also has really good luck with audiobook narrators. Hillary Huber does a great job with her sly (and sometimes not so sly) humor. This book does exactly what it says on the tin. There are thirteen essays (and a small introduction) detailing in Wright’s signature style thirteen of the worst breakups throughout recorded history, starting with Nero in Rome all the way up to Elizabeth […]

“Danger for Black girls was different. It didn’t obey the boundaries of stories. For them, it was always real.”

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

by Leave a Comment

30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 3 Book 10/30 I am being cursed with three-star reads. The frustrating thing about this one is that for the most part I can’t really pinpoint why it didn’t work for me. So fair warning, this review will probably read like I’m still trying to work that out, because I am. One thing I can say is that after having finished, if this book failed to cohere as a story for me, at least it failed in interesting ways, […]

“I don’t want to disappear. I want to exist in my body, with these new possibilities. Possibilities. Perhaps that is one of the main components of life lost to lack of representation. Options erased from the imagination. Narratives indoctrinated that we spend an eternity attempting to break. The unraveling is painful, but it leads you to you.”

Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page

by Leave a Comment

30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 3 Book 8/30 This book will not give you outrage or gossip. It will not get you all tingly with stuff it feels like maybe you shouldn’t know, and you will end the book not knowing who several of the main players are, because Elliot values privacy and is a good person. This book is first and foremost the story of Elliot coming to terms with his gender identity and transness amid a world that devalues and dismisses it, […]

“There are more life forms in a handful of forest soil than there are people on the planet.”

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

by Leave a Comment

It was back when I read Lab Girl by Hope Jahren* that I discovered trees and plants were much more interesting than I had ever thought. So, when I was looking for audiobooks to listen to and saw The Hidden Life of Trees (2016) by Peter Wohlleben, I was primed to learn more about them. I did find this book interesting, and I definitely learned some things. However, I sometimes found it difficult to always pay attention in the car. It was surprisingly easy for my mind to drift […]

More dangerous park, less memoir, please.

Action Park: Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America's Most Dangerous Amusement Park by Andy Mulvihill & Jake Rossen

by Leave a Comment

30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 3 Book 6/30 Action Park tells the story of the country’s most dangerous theme park, from the perspective of the son of the man who owned it. Gene Mulvihill wanted to provide a theme park that catered to people who didn’t want to passively experience things, but be the actor in the rides and attractions. His lax attitude towards safety standards and his strong belief that people had the right to endanger themselves meant injuries and near-drownings were the norm […]

A basic intro to some famous cults.

Cults: Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups and Understanding the People Who Joined Them by Max Cutler & Kevin Conley

by Leave a Comment

30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 3 Book 5/30 I liked this but it didn’t really deliver what it promised. We do see “inside the world’s most notorious groups” (there were quite a lot of non-American cults in here, which was a pleasant surprise), but I think it is disingenuous of the subtitle to imply that this book tries to understand why people joined these cults, at least in any way beyond the most shallow and obvious (vulnerable people are catnip to cult leaders, who […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo