Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Hail To the President

Brave Volodymyr: The Story of Volodymyr Zelensky and the Fight for Ukraine by Linda Elovitz Marshall

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After reading the chapter book about ghosts, I found a book about Volodymyr Zelensky. I figured you cannot get farther apart in subjects, so it was the perfect next read.  Now, I will say that while I enjoyed Brave Volodymyr: The Story of Volodymyr Zelensky and the Fight for Ukraine, it is slanted. The start of this picture book was telling us in the most poetic manner how beautiful the Ukrainian flag is. How magnificent. How proud the people of Ukraine are of it. Now, […]

“This book’s findings should temper our estimation of the freedom we have to change ourselves.”

Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism by Schneur Zalman Newfield

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CBR15Bingo: North America (the book focuses mainly on the Satmar and Lubavitch communities in New York and New Jersey.) I really enjoyed Degrees of Separation, which examines the experience of leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (specifically the Lubavitch and Satmar communities) and how those who leave form their identities during and afterwards, as well as the long-term ramifications. This is an academic text and so there is a lot of sociology terminology to work through, but Newfield did this study based on interviews so there are a […]

Two Takes on Religion and Politics

Life On the Fringes by Haviva Ner-David

Take This Bread by Sara Miles

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                                                        CBR15Bingo: Politics (feminism, inter-community politics, personal politics) Both of these texts engage with what religion means to the writer and how they engage with their religious communities with a more radical and transformative mindset. Reading them in close succession was an interesting look into how feminist, progressive religious women struggle to find their place within structured organizations. However, they are coming from two very different faith traditions and two very different personalities as well. As someone who reacts strongly with the personality of the […]

“…evil is always essentially small and petty and mean and depraved, and in a limited life it represents a portion wasted, misused, and that can never be regained.”

Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman

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CBR15Bingo: Sex (a lot of this book revolves around issues caused by sex) I found out about this book through Jo Walton’s monthly roundup of the books she reads, which I always enjoy. It’s fascinating seeing what goes into the mind of a favorite author, and she’s always reading things I’ve never heard of. I’m not usually a mystery person, but the plot and concept behind this one seemed interesting, so I picked it up. Friday the Rabbi Slept Late follows Rabbi David Small, the […]

The traditions endure, but the perspective evolves

For Small Creatures Such as We by Sasha Sagan

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CBR15Bingo: You are here You are here on this planet, in this life. How you are moved to celebrate and acknowledge the passing of time and all of the joy and pain that is part of it is up to you. Rituals are, among other things, tools that help us process change. There is so much change in this universe, so many entrances and exits, and ways to mark them…each one astonishing in its own way. ― Sasha Sagan, For Small Creatures Such as We: […]

A porn star and a virgin walk into a bakery

Make You Mine (Running in Circles #1) by E.M. Lindsey

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CBR15Bingo: Edibles square CBR15Passport: New to me author Noah is a reluctant baker trying to keep his deceased bubbe’s beloved family bakery afloat. After leaving school to be the sole guardian and provider for his fourteen-year-old brother Adam, Noah believes he cannot survive losing another family member. As a young child, he and his family left Tel Aviv after the death of his father. Devastated, his mother never recovered and met her own tragic end. After losing his grandmother, twenty-year-old Noah makes a promise to […]



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