Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Just an ordinary non-binary trans teen

Ciel in All Directions by Sophie Labelle

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I have been a fan of Sophie Labelle’s comic, Assigned Male, off and on for years. Therefore, when I saw they had books for them, I was excited and picked a few up. They are a great way to read (if not all the series) the best of the series. When I realized they had “spin off” books as well, I looked into them. In 2020 and 2021 Ciel, the non-binary pre-teen/teen of Assigned Male, was given at least two books of their own. I […]

Are Hot Dogs Really Just Psychedelic Sandwiches?

Under The Influence by Eliot Rahal, Stefano Simeone

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FBI Agent Cara Cole goes undercover at a university to infiltrate an alleged Internet-based cult called Hot Dog Party, which is led by a teenage influencer who had his fifteen minutes of fame as a meme. I enjoy bizarre horror, I have always liked a good story about cults, and the phenomenon of parasocial relationships is a subject I’ve been hearing more about lately. I also really do not like the taste of hots dogs. As such, this graphic novel sounded right up my alley. […]

Dirty thumbs and online not-so-nice-people

Chloe #6: Green Thumb by Greg Tessier

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Chloe #6: Green Thumb by Greg Tessier  is a compilation of two stories about growing up and being the best you that you can be. In story one, Chloe and her friends tackle the school project of creating a garden at their school. Chloe at first does not want to get “down and dirty” until one of her friends shows her own much fun it can be. And from there Chloe figures out ways to make her school and home greener. While it branches off […]

I identified with this one so much I wrote the author a thank you letter!

Lurking: How a Person Became a User by Joanne McNeil

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I don’t know the writer of this book, but in some ways I feel that I do. Author Joanne McNeil and I discovered the internet at the same time, as we were working out our own tween identities. Both of our families got on AOL in the mid-90s. We tinkered around with chat rooms, played with websites, clicked around just to see where we could go. As we got older we meandered into the blogosphere, finding like-minded people, ever updating blogrolls. We tinkered with MySpace […]

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 […]

A little too timely

LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media by P.W. Singer & Emerson T. Brooking

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I picked up this book to be a small break from my all the Steinbeck I’ve been reading lately.  I like to alternate a little between fiction and non-fiction.  Within the non-fiction, I like to mix it up between professional reading and just interesting.  Usually, there is some overlap and I think that applies here.  Also, one of the authors, P.W. Singer is coming to speak at my school next week and I wanted to read it before he arrived.  I read an earlier book […]



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