Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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There Goes The Block

St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street by Ada Calhoun

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I had already known I was going to like Ada Calhoun’s tapestry of St. Marks stories and lore by the time I got halfway through it. But it’s what she said when inserting herself that took it to another level for me. Calhoun was raised on the block through childhood and when talking about how chaotic and troublesome things were off St Marks in the 70s and 80s, she mentioned the resentment of some locals…including herself. That despite the great arts and music scene and […]

“The way to stay married is simple – don’t get divorced.”

Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give by Ada Calhoun

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Ada Calhoun has attended many weddings – and like most married people, there’s a feeling of the uncanny in listening to the hopeful speeches given. There are variations, but most boil down to some style of blessing / mission statement that THIS couple is so perfect, all they need is love. Calhoun was moved to write a Modern Love column that gives  a more realistic depiction of marriage – it’s love, sure, but staying married is also about addressing some real dark-night-of-the-soul style moments. In seven […]

“It’s a strange state of vacillating between having our shit together and feeling less and less like we give a damn about what the rest of the world thinks.”

Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun

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Why We Can’t Sleep is a book about Gen X Women and how mid-life is affecting them. Why then, am I a Millennial lady reading it? Because as someone who just turned 40 I often find that I identify more with things that are defined as Gen X as opposed to Millennial (the accepted year bracket for Gen X is 1964-1980, but there are models that have put it as late as 1984). I’m like many other millions of people existing on the boundaries of […]

It’s Not All In My Head

Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun

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Best for: Women at the start of their midlife. In a nutshell: Author Calhoun explores the unique challenges that Gen X women are facing as they enter and continue through midlife. Worth quoting: “But Gen Xers entered life with ‘having it all’ not as a bright new option but as a mandatory social condition.” “The last think we need at this stage of life is self-help…What we need at this stage isn’t more advice, but solace.” Why I chose it: Well, by most accounts I […]

cbr12bingo – Nostalgia! sweet, silly, stupid nostalgia

Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond & Adam Horovitz, with Colson Whitehead, Jonathan Lethem, Ada Calhoun, Luc Sante, Roy Choi, Amy Poehler, Junit Tondora, Spike Jonze, Ian Rogers, Andre Leon Talley

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“Now here’s a little story I’ve got to tell About three bad brothers you know so well It started way back in history With Ad-Rock, MCA, (and me) Mike D” Beastie Boys Book, while a delightful name, is a bit of a misnomer. This isn’t a book- it’s an EXPERIENCE. Adam “Ad-Rock” (Ad-Rock) and Michael “Mike D” Diamond  got together with friends, collaborators, fans, contemporaries, rivals, pop-culture icons, and countless others to tell the story of the Beastie Boys: who they are, where they came from, […]



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