Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Time to catch up on some history I never learned

Nat Turner by Kyle Baker

The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks and Canaan White

Muhammad Ali by Sybille Titeux and Amazing Ameziane

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cbr12bingo Pandemic If you want to catch up a bit on the history you weren’t taught in school, these three graphic novels are a great way to do so. Nat Turner gives detail and perspective on the 1831 slave rebellion that was probably mentioned in a textbook but only covered in passing. The Harlem Hellfighters reveals not only the bravery and heroism of the all-Black 369th regiment fighting in WWI Europe, but also the racism and violence they faced from their fellow Americans. Muhammad Ali […]

The Answer

Not A Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson by Kent Babb

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Statistically and anecdotally, there are dozens of better players in NBA history than Allen Iverson. Iverson was famous for low percentage shots, inefficient passing and turnovers. His usage rate was outrageously high for someone whose effectiveness was questionable. When his hellbent driving skills worked, his layups and dunks looked like masterpieces. But his game was always more appreciated from an aesthetic perspective. So no, Allen Iverson was not the best player to play basketball. Not by a long shot. But in terms of cultural influence […]

I need this band to be real now

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Throughout my youth I was addicted to rock biographies. Loving those covering bands from the 60s and early 70s in particular, Daisy Jones and The Six could easily have been one of those I read all the way back then. Y’know, if they weren’t fictional. It’s a testament to how well this is written that at some point, I definitely crossed over into weird “they’re real and I must hear their music” territory. Daisy Jones and The Six charts the meteoric rise of the band […]

A very straightforward biography of a noteworthy woman.

Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr

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Turns out I didn’t know very much at all about Sally Ride. I mean, what I knew about her was very limited, and half wrong. I knew that her name was Sally Ride, and that she was the first woman in space (she wasn’t, she was the first American woman in space; the first woman was cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who Sally once met covertly). So this book was very interesting for me, just in terms of learning about this fascinating woman, even though the writing […]

A well-rounded portrait of a rock icon

Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren

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Janis Joplin has been the subject of a number of biographies. She is an irresistible topic after all. A rising star, a trailblazer for women in rock whose passion and emotion were evident in every song she sang, she lived hard and died young. Janis performed at Monterey and Woodstock, palled around with other musical greats of the ‘60s and died of a heroin overdose while at the height of her artistic powers. Hers is a story of triumph and tragedy combined. In this biography, […]

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Maria Longworth Storer: From Music and Art to Popes and Presidents by Constance J. Moore and Nancy M. Broermann

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As a native Cincinnatian, I am familiar with the name Longworth and that family’s connection to local history. Maria Longworth Storer was the founder of and one of the creators at the world renowned Rookwood Pottery. This new biography of Maria Longworth Storer opened my eyes not just to this formidable woman’s business acumen, artistic sensibility and philanthropy, which were already well known and documented, but also to her religious and political views and ambitions. Maria Longworth Storer came from a wealthy society family, but […]



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