Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Bringing colour and life to a childhood under apartheid

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

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In the world of celebrity memoirs, this book is a gem.  Although Noah gives us bits and pieces of how he got from the ‘hoods of Johannesburg to replacing Jon Stewart on the Daily Show (ie: being the funny guy to avoid being an outcast), his book is really about growing up mixed race under apartheid in South Africa.  The stories are sometimes almost too wild to believe (he was pushed from a moving car to escape a potential murder or assault, the domestic violence described is heartbreaking yet with a miraculous outcome, etc.) but my biggest takeaway is how after […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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2/26/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:8 |

Poetry that is beautiful

Thrall by Natasha Trethewey

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If you like poetry, you should read Natasha Trethewey. These poems are, on one hand, about her relationship to her father, and, on the other hand, the position that black people have been too often placed in by white people. Thrall is an interesting word choice because it means being in someone’s power. There is the power that family holds over us. There is the hold that the art that inspired some of these poems had on Trethewey. There is the sense of ownership that white people have felt (or still feel in some cases) over black bodies. It’s all […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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2/16/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:22 |

Must read about education

None of the Above: The Untold Story of the Altanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal, Corparate Greed, and Criminalization of Educators by Shani Robinson and Anna Simonton

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Disclaimer: I received a copy via a giveaway on Libirarything. This book about the Atlanta school test cheating scandal is really two books in one body and as such is not as good a book as it could be. Shani Robinson was a teacher at Dunbar Elementary in Atlanta. After she left the school, she was charged as one of the teachers who allegedly changed answers on standardized tests. Robinson plead not guilty, but sadly, lost in court. She is appealing. I hope she wins. Part of the book, the first book struggling to get out as it were, is […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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2/12/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:19 |

Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

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This won’t be a long review. I don’t have anything substantive to add to what’s already been written and said about Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give, and I’m not sure it’s appropriate for me to say anything at all. As a middle-aged, middle-class white guy from the very white Deep Midwest, I’m several degrees of separation from this book’s intended audience, but that’s exactly why it’s an important read for people like me. Starr lives in a rough neighborhood where everyone knows her because she works at her dad’s store. She also attends high school in a wealthy suburb […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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2/3/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:7 |

Mirrors that don’t reflect reality

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

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I received Boy, Snow, Bird from an earlier CBR book exchange, but it had been collecting dust for a few years. I finally had a reason to pick it back up when my Mocha Girls Read book club selected it for a fairytale’s retold theme. Helen Oyeyemi’s novel is a VERY loose version of Snow White set in the 1950s. Boy Novak runs away to a small town to escape her abusive father. She meets a man named Arturo who isn’t quite a prince, but he adores her. After sort of wearing her down and her own loneliness, she marries him […]

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12/29/2018 's CBR10 Review No:14 |

Have you found your color?

Honeysmoke by Monique Fields

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Honeysmoke brings up an interesting question: If you mother and father are two different colors, what is your color? Simone wants her own color. She is not black or white or peanut butter or any other color. Her friends and parents try to help her, but Simone is determined to give a name to what color she is. The how she comes up with her color is pretty special; just like she is. It shows that she is a little bit her mom, dad and herself. Monique Fields works in many areas (on air, print and online) promoting race and […]

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12/28/2018 's CBR10 Review No:488 |

My favorite book of 2018

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee

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It’s official: I have the yips. I finished reading this book three weeks ago, but every time I’ve tried to write a review, I freeze, not because I have nothing to say but because I can’t seem to calm my mind enough to write the review this book deserves.  For you see: Alexander Chee’s How to Write an Autobiographical Novel is my favorite book of the year. Chee shares essays about his life and writing career, keeping the subjects separate at first, then integrating them more and more as the book progresses. He writes about a summer exchange program in […]

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12/4/2018 's CBR10 Review No:64 |

It’s a thin line

What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons

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CBR10BINGO: Under Represented This past weekend, I went to a family wedding where my first cousin’s daughter was one of the brides. I have a complicated relationship with most of my family, but the one person with whom I’ve always felt closest is this cousin. I was able to go a day early and got to spend some extra time with just her and her husband. The subject of birthdays came up, with mine just a few days away, and I told her that I’ve never paid much attention to them until the last few years as I approach the […]

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8/4/2018 's CBR10 Review No:42 |


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