Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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I’ve got the butter knife blues

lues with a Butter Knife: The Unstoppable Music of CeDell Davis by Jason Peterson and R. Gregory Christie

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Out of all the music I enjoy listening to, Blues has never been a top one. However, I appreciate how it has shaped the music world. I appreciate the hard work, troubles that people had to overcome and how it represented (and still does) a world rich in culture. And yes, I like it, there are a few songs I have enjoyed, but it is not my “go to” when it comes to listening. With that said, I know a few of the big names, […]

“Marriage was like death”

Secrets Beyond the Door by Maria Tatar

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You’ll notice a pattern: I’m deep-diving into crime and violence, in fairy tales and beyond. Secrets Beyond the Door is a book of essays exploring the Bluebeard fairy tale and its influence. People are really obsessed with this fairy tale! I guess I’m as guilty. The book starts with Charles Perrault’s 17th century version that popularized the tale, then goes through its evolution in gothic literature (Jane Eyre, Rebecca), twentieth century literature (Vonnegut, King), women’s perspectives (Carter), and how it crosses over with true crime. […]

I read two books in a row called “Savage [Something]”

Savage Appetites: True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession by Rachel Monroe

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As a whole, I’m not as mad about true crime as many women are – though I’ve certainly been compelled by various stories over the years. Unpacking some of my childhood media memories (Tonya Harding, OJ Simpson, etc) led me to You’re Wrong About, and I also love Criminal – both because they pick interesting stories but offer a good mix. I can’t just do murder stories all the time. But I’ve been researching the genre for a project, and I heard Monroe quoted on […]

The Architecture of Our New Digital Cage

The Twittering Machine by Richard Seymour

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  There’s a whole literary field of broken dreams on our addiction to smart phones. The Art of Surveillance Capitalism talks about how our data is harvested, Irresistible looks at how tech companies keep us hooked, while The Shallows shows how our concentration span is reduced. The Twittering Machine sits among these, but offers a different slant. What if we are being enslaved by our devices, what if they’re robbing us of our surplus value?   It’s a very Marxist critique of the rise of […]

A bloody good time

Savage Pastimes: A Cultural History of Violent Entertainment by Harold Schechter

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Kids see too much violence online/video games are too violent/TV is too violent/Comic books are too violent/Radio dramas are too violent/Dime novels are too violent/you get the picture! Harold Schechter provides a timeline of humanity’s fascination with violence from the era of oral storytelling to “today” (2005). I picked this up for research for a project, mostly because I wanted to learn more about true crime media, but it was a very good read. Granted, he didn’t have to convince me, but it was helpful […]

An account of life

I Won't Pretend These Missiles Are Stars: Life in Iran During the 12-Day War by Tehran's Cartoonist Collective / The Cartoonist Collective

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The short stories inside of I Won’t Pretend These Missiles Are Stars by Tehran’s Cartoonist Collective deal with the weeks of war between Israel and Iran. Set in Iran, each of the people giving their story has a different way of dealing or not dealing with the events around them. Some worry about the big picture (death), others worry that they never got to wear the special outfit to their presentation. Each author has a unique way of showing what was and wasn’t important to […]



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