Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

We Only Get This One Body

Fat, Crazy, and Tired: Tales from the Trenches of Transformation by Van Lathan, Jr.

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I know Van Lathan from his Ringer podcasts, Higher Learning and Ringer-Verse. When I saw that he published a book earlier this year about his relationship with his body I thought, yes – let’s read that. What I got was a cultural critique of the unspoken things that keep us from maintaining good health in America right now. So much of the way in which the systems around us fail us forms the bedrock of this book, but its Lathan’s way of exploring the larger […]

“It’s pretty common for the mere mention of the word disability to evoke fear, confusion, and an endless stream of misconceptions.”

Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau

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If you’re looking for a good, 101-level introduction to current disability discourse, including (but not limited to) models of disability (medical, social, charity, economic, human rights, etc); person-first vs. identity-first language; intersectionality; and what words to start using (just say disabled, my friend: we know) and what words to STOP saying (you know the big ones, but maybe also consider how often you use blind to mean ignorant, or lame to mean boring, and sweet baby junipers, please stop calling it ‘wheelchair-bound’: I am not […]

Burnout, or, Why to Stick It to the Man

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Amelia Nagoski

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This is my “Self Care” bingo entry.  I just finished reading Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski. I’ve read so many self-help/self-empowerment/self-care books, that I feel like Burnout wasn’t necessarily presenting me with information that I didn’t already know, but it was putting together information that I already know in a surprising way.  Burnout is written by two sisters – Emily and Amelia Nagoski – and it is specifically aimed at woman-identified people and the specific stressors we […]

If you have a chronic illness, you’ll see yourself in this story. If you don’t, you need to read it anyway.

Unseen by Jacinta Parsons

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As with most of my favourite books, Unseen found me, rather than the other way around. A few months ago I was searching the app of my local radio station for ‘Crohn’s’ hoping to come across interviews that would help me understand more about this disease as I go through my own process of diagnosis. An interview with Jacinta Parsons appeared and I immediately listened, captivated for an hour. Obviously the interview was to promote the book, but at the time I didn’t pay much […]

Everyone is Doing Their Bit in Their Own Way

Bisexual Unicorn Vampires Teach Me the Importance of the Vampire Cough by Chuck Tingle

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Well, I don’t think I could have picked a more tonally different read for my No Money review than my Money one. Chuck Tingle is famous for his eclectic romance shorts between people and exotic cryptic species, people and inanimate objects, and even people and abstract concepts. Recently, he has been inundated with requests for Coronavirus related erotica — which he has refused to do, on the grounds that he doesn’t want to write about things or events that are harming people. So instead, Chuck […]

CBR12 Book Bingo – I Wish…

When Life Gives You Pears: The Healing Power of Family, Faith, and Funny People by Jeannie Gaffigan

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“I had charts with every appointment, every activity, color-coded by child. Everything under control. Sure, I had throbbing headaches and trouble hearing out of my left ear. I didn’t have time for this. I pushed myself harder. Finally, at the recommendation of the kids’ pediatrician, to whom I’d admitted not being able to hear, I squeezed in an MRI.” Comedy is my love language, and Jim and Jeannie Gaffigan are two of the funniest. This is my CBR12 Book Bingo choice for “I wish…” because […]



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