Cannonball Read 12

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Sure, Sex is Fun, But, Have You Ever Listened to Samantha Irby Read Her Own Book?

Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby

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BINGO: Green Best for: Anyone who enjoys clever, interesting essays that will make them laugh. In a nutshell: Author Irby is back with her third collection of essays, which cover what her life is like these days, as well as just some hilariously repetitive takes on the exact same phrase. Worth quoting: “Sure, sex is fun, but have you ever used a really absorbent towel?” Why I chose it: I was looking for a book to listen to while running, and realized I both hadn’t […]

Re-thinking “Asian American”.

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

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I set my entire June TBR list over two months ago, including this book, but it turned out to be an eerily prescient choice. When I was reading the bits about the 1992 L.A. riots, and the parts where she directly addressed anti-back racism in America, I felt such a weird sense of momentous synchronicity. Anyway, the book. This was nearly a five star read for me, and will likely be a five star book for many. My reasons for not giving it the full […]

“I often described my sudden shift in self-awareness as feeling as if a demon had entered my room in the middle of the night, startled me awake by whispering, ‘What if you were a man, sort of?’ into my ear, then slithered out the window before I could ask any follow-up questions.”

Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

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This would honestly be five stars except for a handful of essays/interludes that were too experimental and obscure for me to get anything out of them. I’m going to keep this review short and sweet for a couple of reasons, the first being that the time for me to have said something detailed, thoughtful, and incisive about it would have been back in late April when I first finished it. That time has now long passed. The second reason being that I’m not sure I […]

“A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.”

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

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If we- and now I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others- do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world It is time to listen. James Baldwin had a voice unlike any other. He transcends country, creed, and time. His work is astonishing and terribly important. The […]

Read How to Build a Girl Instead

How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

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Caitlin Moran is a British culture writer/arts reporter/ feminist thinker, and How To Be A Woman is her 2011 memoir/ collection of feminist essays that had been sitting on my shelf for far too long.  How To Be a Woman is structured as both a chronological progression of Moran’s life events and a feminist opinion tied to that event (ie: the first chapter is “I Start Bleeding”, which is both an account of her first period, as well as a discussion on masturbation, women and […]



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