Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

So that was that

I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou

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This wasn’t really what I expected. When I saw this on the list for this fall’s Southern lit book club selections, I was excited I was finally going to fill this gap in my reading. While I think many read this in high school, it wasn’t one of the ones we covered in my classes (we read other classics like Their Eyes Were Watching God and Beloved). While I have picked up some quintessential high school reads, I never got around to this one – […]

The Opposite of Idle Hands

With Her Own Hands: Women Weaving Their Stories by Nicole Nehrig

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CBR18 Bingo: Craft – This book is all about a women’s history of various textile crafts, including knitting, sewing, and embroidery. Throughout history in many cultures, art forms such as knitting, sewing, and embroidery were overlooked as women’s work, but they have also been a way for them to explore their intellectual capacities, seek economic independence, create community, process traumas, and convey messages of self-expression and political protest. I picked up crocheting some years ago, having taught myself through watching YouTube videos and reading articles. […]

“Eleanor, by the wrath of God, queen of the English.”

Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Mother Queen of the Middle Ages by Desmond Seward

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You know the old adage, “take things with a shaker of salt”? Well, with this book you don’t need a shaker; you need the entire darn Dead Sea. Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Mother Queen of the Middle Ages professes to be a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II, mother of Richard the Lionheart and John “Lackland” of Magna Carta fame; what it turned out to be was the tale of Eleanor, apparently the Livia of England, she-bitch goddess from Hell, as told […]

The Back Bedroom: A True Story of Exorcism and Murder by Gregg Olsen

The Back Bedroom: A True Story of Exorcism and Murder by Gregg Olsen

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I honestly think that the problem with this story outside of the fact that human beings are truly awful sometimes is that the ending left me feeling dissatisfied. I wish that Olsen had interviewed more of the people involved (if still alive) to just get their thoughts about not only what happened, but the final sentencing of some of the participants. I also felt like the little boy who was the center of this case, Davey Weilbacher just became part of other people’s stories. I […]

For the nerdiest of word nerds

Why Q Needs U: A History of Our Letters and How We Use Them by Danny Bate

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CBR18 BINGO: You, a homophone of “U.” Also because I speak and write in English. Double Bingo! Diagonal: One, Map, You, 26, Or Four corners and the center: Left, One, Repair, Or, You I’m amazed that anyone whose first language is something other than English can ever master writing in this silly language. It’s so full of contradictions and spelling travesties that one has to wonder how we got to this place. Danny Bate has written a highly detailed account of exactly that. In the […]

These are the roots of rhythm and the roots of rhythm remain

Days of Miracle and Wonder by Ashley Kahn

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Paul Simon’s Graceland was released the same year I was born, so even though I’ve been listening to it and loving it for a long time, I was only partly aware of the history and the controversy surrounding it. Enter Ashley Kahn’s Days of Miracle and Wonder Paul Simon and the Trial and Triumps of Graceland, to help fill in the gaps in my knowledge. Kahn, a music journalist who used to work as a tour manager for acts including both Paul Simon and his collaborators Ladysmith […]



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