Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“The ability to tell your own story, in words or images, is already a victory, already a revolt.”

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

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I’ve been wanting to read this for years, and my TBR Jar finally plucked this from the pile. There’s just something about that cheeky title that draws you in, but I never got around to it. Unfortunately, my first impressions of the titular piece were very underwhelming. It’s about seven pages long, plus an updated postscript. I wanted a lot more from the ideas the book was titled after. Luckily I at least knew going in that this was an essay collection that would be […]

A young heart and an antique soul

Little Weirds by Jenny Slate

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I started Jenny Slate’s collection of essays on the morning of New Year’s Day on my way to meet my friend for one of those polarizing NYC boutique fitness classes. The nature of the book makes it easy to fly through vignettes and I was not having a great feeling about it as I got off the subway. I couldn’t believe I was going to start out the new year with a DNF. I was already trying to justify it in my head, “Perhaps 2020 […]

She didn’t end the book talking about butt stuff, and that’s important.

You Can't Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson

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I decided randomly a couple of months ago that I was only going to read books by or about badass ladies in January 2020 (the only time I could possibly hold to a theme month is the beginning of the year; it gets too messy later on). It feels auspicious to start out the year this way, and this book was a great start to that. Comedian and podcaster Phoebe Robinson is smart and funny and she has great things to say. This book is […]

What a Wonderful Collection of Essays

The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West

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Well I don’t know how to talk about this collection of essays by Lindy West. She does a great job of discussing and analyzing key moments over the past couple of years (the election of Donald Trump, the rise of the left, feminism, etc.) She also manages to make you laugh and at times want to throw hands at people because of the things that are going on and how many people seem to be turning a blind eye to things. Since this is an […]

She’s Done It Again

The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West

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Best for: People who want essays that critically explore politics and pop culture while making you laugh your ass off. In a nutshell: Author Lindy West follows up her Bestseller (and TV show!) Shrill with this book of essays exploring the Trump era, the Me Too movement, and many other aspects of political and pop culture. Worth quoting: “We need to start calling things by their real names: racism is racism, sexism is sexism, mistakes are mistakes, and they can be rectified if we do […]

Trapped in Our Generation

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

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I’ve been following Jia Tolentino’s work since her time at Jezebel. Her New Yorker pieces are always must reads for me, even when they cover subjects I’m not interested in. She’s one of the few writers I’ve made the effort to see in person, catching her while on tour promoting this book. We chatted about our mutual love of Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game, which she had written about a few months earlier. It’s taken me awhile to understand why exactly I like her work, especially considering I don’t […]



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