Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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A remarkable life, and a remarkable woman

Boof of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood

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I’ve only read three books by Margaret Atwood, including The Blind Assassin, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Testaments. I was impressed by all of them, but The Handmaid’s Tale made a lasting impression on me. I cannot overemphasize how much that book affected me, and how it comes to mind whenever another unfortunate current event strays a little too close to the plot. Because of my admiration for Atwood’s writing, I took an online “Masterclass” with her. Although I don’t remember too many specifics of the class, […]

A Topic In Search of an Editor

Playing the Victim: How the Powerful Deny and Attack Survivors of Violence, from Domestic Abuse to Genocide by Kylie Cheung

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Rating: 3 Stars In a nutshell: Author Cheung writes half a book full of very compelling arguments opposing Israel’s genocide in Palestine, then tacks on some stuff about health care, abortion, and police violence in the USA. Best for: There are like three or four books in here so I’m not sure who it is for. Quote that made me think: “Whose lives matter under capitalism and imperialism, and whose are expendable?” Why I chose it: I thought from the subheading that it would cover […]

“Without ever really experiencing any of it, I know it all. Because books taught me.”

Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed

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Each year there is usually one task in the Read Harder Challenge list that asks me to locate a book on some author demographic that I do not track (I don’t track many at all, really). This year it was a book by a d/Deaf author. To my knowledge my 600 deep book list didn’t have any so off to do some internet sleuthing I went. Which brought me to Shannon Reed who is hard of hearing. While I don’t know if Reed associates herself […]

Don’t say a word

Out of the Blue by Barefoot Books and Alison Jay

Homecoming: A Story of War, Nature, and Hope by Margaryta Winkler

Alone One Night by Andrea Antinori

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What is going on with wordless picture books?  I read Out of the Blue by Barefoot Books and Alison Jay (due March 2027) via an online reader and it’s a wordless board book. And then I read Margaryta Winkler’s (due February 2027) book and I was okay, this book,  Homecoming: A Story of War, Nature, and Hope has no words to read, but still there are some (wildly amazing and far out) images to read and I am really getting into those. But then I […]

Reflecting on the road to progress

So Many Stars by Caro De Robertis

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Bingo Square: Right (the right to exist, the right to be oneself, Civil Rights) This was this fall session’s non-fiction selection for queer book club, and we all quite enjoyed it. Of course, it was also one of those books where we ran out of things to say because it can be hard to talk critically about people’s experiences. The book was part of a larger oral history project and the author focused specifically on elder people of color in the queer community. While their […]

Rediscovering the past

Maria and the Cave Paintings by Barbara Lowell and Elke Boschinger

What Marcel Found: The Incredible Discovery of the Lascaux Cave Painting by Cedar Pruitt and David Litchfield

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A while back I read Maria and the Cave Paintings by Barbara Lowell and Elke Boschinger (due early November 2026; via online reader). This book shows how a child, with her father, explores a local cave of Spain. She wanders off on her own, coming upon paintings on the walls of the cave. Her father is convinced they are prehistoric. Though things are exciting, at first (as it is the 1880s and one of the first discoveries of such things), over time, the pull of […]



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