Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Women can make the world

Behind My Doors: The Story of the World's Oldest Library by Hena Khan

Miles of Style: Eunice W. Johnson and the EBONY Fashion Fair by Lisa Brathwaite

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History is a genre I tend to be drawn to. I like most formats it comes in, even true non-fiction if it is done in a biography or a solid presentation that does not get too fancy or lofty. And as I have said before, picture books are a great format as well. Therefore, combining the two can lead to some of my favorite reading, or at least to some really good reading. The first picture book I read is due soon (May 2025) and […]

Bodies Are Political, and So Is What We Put on Them

Dressed for Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox

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Fashion may seem to be concerned entirely with pop culture, but the way people choose to dress can make a statement about their politics, and feminists over the 20th century have made ample use of this fact. You’d think it should be obvious, with how “the personal is political,” but it was definitely eye-opening to see how deeply fashion and feminism have been entwined, used by both those for and against it to make their point. Despite the cliches about the ‘ugly, man-hating feminist,’ many […]

How Japanese denim got so good.

Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style by W. David Marx

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I can’t remember how I came across the recommendation for this book, but I’m so glad I did. Although I knew, through a vague cultural osmosis, that Japanese denim is The Best, and that Harajuku is (was?) some sort of Center of Style, and also, as a sewist, that Japanese cottons are really amazing quality, I had no context for any of this. In my mind it was part of this sort of fuzzy cultural impression that Japan is, and always has been, good at […]

“For four years we spied and we worked damn hard and we saved people’s lives and we made a difference and nobody cared too much that we were women. And then it all ended.”

The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre by Natasha Lester

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Ex-OSS agent Alix St. Pierre seeks a fresh start in Paris as the PR agent for the freshly established House of Dior, but her actions and enemies from during the war continue to dog her steps. This was the oldest NetGalley ARC on my shelf, so it’s with a real sense of satisfaction that I’m crossing it off the list. And it was fun to see yet another fresh perspective on World War Two, that of a female OSS agent, and better yet to see […]

Can I be a drag queen when I grow up?

The Art of Drag by Jack Hall, Sofie BIrkin, Helen Li and Jasjyot Singh Hans

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Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably seen something about the world of Drag.  Maybe it was RuPauls Drag Race (or one of the spinoffs), maybe it was Drag Queens reading to kids, maybe it was at a local drag show. But did you ever stop and think about the history of that?  When I told a friend I was reading The Art of Drag by Jack Hall, Sofie BIrkin, Helen Li, and  Jasjyot Singh Hans they thought it was up […]

Disney tricked me and I’m not even mad!

If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy

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I have loudly declared for a long time that we should have a hiatus on all Cinderella remakes. And I have rallied for a shorter time on the sad habit of Disney retreading old IP over and over again. It’s not that I am so mad about them redoing the same fairy tales all the time, but in a world where there are truly hundreds of versions of their Disney Princess tales, why not tell a fresh version of the story? I decided to read […]



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