Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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The Intersectional Autobiographical Approach to Understanding Racism

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

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Bingo review 10: Book Club I work at a regional state university. Earlier this summer, we got an email containing a book club invitation that will begin a series of events designed to reflect each of the institution’s official values. Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist was chosen in association with “adaptability”, and probably also in association with the current focus on race and racism in the US. According to the accompanying flyer, this group will meet monthly throughout the fall semester digitally, […]

The Union Forever

Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson

The Golden Gizmo by Jim Thompson

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Reviewing two books here, one of which I have a lot to say about and do, the other I have little and do not… Battle Cry of Freedom 5/5 Unquestionably the ur-text on why the Civil War happened, McPherson examines all angles, the social, political and military. Not a stone is left unturned. Yet this book is remarkably readable. Very few parts of it dragged and the ones that did were the ones that I wasn’t particularly interested in in the first place. McPherson doesn’t set […]

Great gossip straight from Georgian England

The Scandalous Lady W by Hallie Rubenfold

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Being both in the grip of a current obsession for consuming everything I can about England in the 18th century and also being a huge gossip, The Scandalous Lady W seemed almost tailor made for me. I found this book after inhaling the first two seasons of the Harlots TV series and noticing it was written by Rubenhold – I’ve since bought just a few more from her based on how much I enjoyed this. The Scandalous Lady W deals with the headline making divorce […]

The Troubles

Say Nothing: A True Story of Memory and Murder in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

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Read as part of cbr12 bingo: Pandemic! I’ve wanted to read this one for a bit and it doesn’t really fit in any other category. Few books have had the kind of hype that Say Nothing has been getting the last 12-18 months. It wound up on dozens of “Best Of” lists in 2019. It was recommended by Barack Obama. Friends who read it gushed about it. Given that’s a history tale (yes) about a subject I know little about but am curious of (uh-huh), I knew […]

Time to catch up on some history I never learned

Nat Turner by Kyle Baker

The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks and Canaan White

Muhammad Ali by Sybille Titeux and Amazing Ameziane

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cbr12bingo Pandemic If you want to catch up a bit on the history you weren’t taught in school, these three graphic novels are a great way to do so. Nat Turner gives detail and perspective on the 1831 slave rebellion that was probably mentioned in a textbook but only covered in passing. The Harlem Hellfighters reveals not only the bravery and heroism of the all-Black 369th regiment fighting in WWI Europe, but also the racism and violence they faced from their fellow Americans. Muhammad Ali […]

We have to be better than this

Killers of the Flower Moon: Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

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An incredibly well-written account of yet another shameful episode in how white people treat others, Killers of the Flower Moon looks at the systematic murder and robbery of the Osage Indians in 1920’s Oklahoma. Having forced the Osage on to what was thought to be useless, unfertile ground, white Oklahomans were pissed when it turned out that said land turned out to be incredibly oil rich and that the Osage had retained the rights to the fortunes reaped from this in the original agreement to […]



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