Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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> Genre: Biography/Memoir

The moments of his life, shaping us all

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

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I bounce between a 3.5 and 4 with All Boys Aren’t Blue as the flow of things sometimes was off for me. However, the subject is very good, and I think could be valuable to even those who have not/or will not follow a similar path as George M. Johnson. Even though his intended audience was not exactly aimed at someone like me, I was able to appreciate his voice and his story. For sure this is not for the very young due to language […]

Deeper Than Expected (And That’s Not a Dig at the Author)

Managing Expectations by Minnie Driver

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Best for: Fans of well-written and insightful autobiographies of public figures. In a nutshell: Actress and author Driver shares the details of a few stories that provide the reader with real insight into her life. Worth quoting: I listened so didn’t take down any particular phrases, but there were definitely multiple times I had a strong positive reaction to something she shared. Why I chose it: On one level, I’m a bit of a fan in that I think she is fantastic in Grosse Pointe […]

“In some ways, Richard’s argument about OxyContin mirrored the libertarian position of a firearms manufacturer who insists that he bears no responsibility for gun deaths. Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.”

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

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This is an absolutely fascinating work of family history, that just happens to also be a searing indictment of that family’s contribution to the opioid crisis. The first chunk of this book details the origins of the Sackler family. In some ways, it’s a truly American success story: the three brothers, Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond, were the children of immigrants. All became doctors. The three brothers purchased a small pharmaceutical company in the early 1950’s (Purdue Pharma), which Mortimer and Raymond mostly ran while Arthur […]

“I’m as wary of certainty as I am of good vibes and positive thinking.”

Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough

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I was looking for another audiobook to listen to during my commute when I saw Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing (2021) by Lauren Hough available at my library. The blurb described it as a memoir about leaving a cult. It sounded like an interesting topic, and so I picked it up. I wasn’t sure what to expect, so I was surprised when Cate Blanchett began speaking, and the first essay was the author’s experience of being a lesbian in the Air Force. At first, I thought I’d […]

The Importance of Talking About Our Feelings

Fat, Crazy, and Tired: Tales from the Trenches of Transformation by Van Lathan Jr.

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I’d never heard of Van Lathan Jr. before faintingviolet asked me to return his memoir to the library for her. As I’m wont to do, I read the first few chapters the night before I returned it, and was hooked and had to take it out for myself. The title (and first few chapters) lead one to believe this book is about diets and food and all the usual struggles people face in trying to get healthy. And part of this memoir is about Lathan […]

What we talk about when we talk about grief, and marriage, and … and … and …

All of This by Rebecca Woolf

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Bingo square – new (I let this book jump over quite a few others in my TBR pile, messing up library due date timelines, because I was that excited to read it) (BINGO! bodies – elephant) I loved reading Rebecca Woolf’s blog, Girls Gone Child, from the early years when I was also building my family based on surprises. Picking up her latest book, All of This, was a little like knowing that one of your formerly close girlfriends was going through some SHIT, but mainly […]



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