Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

History is Made by Persistence and Knowing the Right People

A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton & the Civil War by Stephen B. Oates

by Leave a Comment

Clara Barton is one of those historical figures that sits as a vaguely understood fact in my mind. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about her existence, but beyond being the founder of the American Red Cross, she never bore much significance to me. But then I wrote a little article about visiting small historical sites and the “Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office” came up in my search. A cursory perusal of the website had me fascinated, and I needed to know […]

Escaping Slavery Is the Least Interesting Thing About Him

The Road to Dawn: Josiah Henson & the Story that Sparked the Civil War by Jared Brock

by Leave a Comment

My boss ordered a free desk copy of The Road to Dawn for his class, and when it didn’t arrive on time, he bought it himself. As usually happens, the desk copy ended up arriving at the same time as the Amazon book, and he gave me the free copy. It’s been sitting on my bookshelf behind my desk at work for four years and I’ve never cracked the cover. It’s not that it didn’t interest me, but more that I put it away and […]

Who says a woman can’t fight?

To the Front!: Clara Barton Braves the Battle of Antietam by Claudia Friddell

by Leave a Comment

The poetic prose manner of the book, To the Front!: Clara Barton Braves the Battle of Antietam, might have been suited best for a non-picture book format. Also, the subject, as it is portrayed on the pages created by Claudia Friddell, might be too old for the picture book crowd. I would put the ages at least second grade to a fourth grader who is slightly on the younger side. But the subject is for not sensitive readers. This was not an easy read for […]

A monumental achievement that mostly worked like I thought it would

Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley

by Leave a Comment

I was shocked to see that this book had only been reviewed one time for Cannonball Read. My cultural frame of reference for this show is that it came out before my time, was one of the biggest shows in the history of television. The show premiered in January of 1977 and Part I garnered a 40.5 share. The show was aired over the course of a single week because CBS was afraid it was going to be a bust, and preferred one bad week […]

In which I finally rectify having never read an American master of writing

Beloved by Toni Morrison

by Leave a Comment

[TW: violence against children, racial slurs, depictions of slavery, abuse] BINGO – UnCannon In high school I took two AP English classes. In college, I took a Comparative Western Literature course. Toni Morrison was not on any of my reading lists for those courses despite the fact that Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and that Beloved was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1987 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. Perhaps, Morrison is not read more at […]

No ticket needed

William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad by Don Tate

by Leave a Comment

Who was William Still? One of the most important people who helped run The Underground Railroad and I would wager few know his name. As the book William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad will point out, several people of color were involved in the everyday workings of the Railroad, few are still known. And Don Tate authors and illustrates one man’s journey. The youngest of his siblings, some left behind in slavery when their parents escaped, Still always wanted […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo