Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Fairy Tales as Free Therapy

Ripening: Why Women Need Fairytales Now by Sharon Blackie

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Ripening: Why Women Need Fairy Tales Now by Sharon Blackie is probably the only type of self-help book I like. Dr. Blackie is a psychologist and folklorist who examines how women can apply fairy tales and folklore to the different parts of their lives. She likens a woman’s life cycle to that of a tree (which is very fairy-tale of her), and makes a very sound case for the use of fairy tales as bibliotherapy. Dr. Blackie believes we are all storytellers of a sort, […]

All Roads Lead to the Oedipus Complex

The Fifty-Minute Hour by Robert Lindner

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CBR17 Bingo: Red – Behold, the cover. Robert Lindner, a prominent psychoanalyst during the 1940s, relates five unusual cases he has worked on – a murderer, a Communist, a bulimic, a Fascist, and a physicist who believed he was living a parallel life as overlord of a distant star system. I’m not sure where I heard of this book – most likely through the case of “Kirk Allen,” whose story of science fiction delusion is related in the final chapter of the book. While it […]

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure

A Noble Madness: The Dark Side of Collecting from Antiquity to Now by James Delbourgo

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CBR17 Bingo: N – Re: the title. The obsessive collector in history has worn many faces – a magician, a scientist, a connoisseur, a madman – but whether they are a force for good or evil in their societies is a more complicated question. When I think of collectors I usually think of the modern kind who collects some specific category of kitsch because they like them, be it stuffed animals or porcelain figurines or Stephen King novels. As someone who dislikes clutter and has […]

A beat-up book that made me think people need this book

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness. by Kristen Radtke

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If you want to feel really bad about yourself, read Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness. Or, just as likely, if you want to feel great about yourself, read this graphic novel by Kristen Radtke. There are some contradictions, some places you will see yourself and see friends and/or family. It is slow reading, but busy. The book’s theme is, as the title says, about loneliness. Radtke talks about how it has its has ups and downs, in an almost poetic fashion with both […]

“I’m not interested in burning myself [out] by whole-assing stuff that will be fine if I half- or quarter-ass it. Being able to achieve maximum economy of ass is an important adult skill.”

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman

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This year I picked my top five books and Burkeman garnered the number one spot for another book, but he earned the superlative for “most likely to change your life” for this one. I first discovered him (like not that I “discovered him” but that when I became aware of him, you get my meaning) on NPR Life Kit in an episode titled “How to Rethink What You Spend Your Time – And Life – Doing.” This simple 21 minute episode shook me upside down, […]

“I cannot say this frequently enough: the goal is not to clear your mind but to focus your mind—for a few nanoseconds at a time—and whenever you become distracted, just start again. Getting lost and starting over is not failing at meditation, it is succeeding.”

Meditations for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-To Book by Dan Harris and Jeff Warren

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This book is one part Meditation how to, one part road trip, one part Dan Harris being cantankerous and introspective and just very frank about his own life. I featured it on my podcast “Advice from the Cheerbrarian” in the episode titled “The Power of Yes (Part 3) – Give meditation a whirl: how meditation has helped me and might help you.” Juuust had to get that icky self-promotion outta the way. And now onto the book! Firstly, who is Dan Harris? You may have […]



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