Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Sex Cult and Wellness Startup

Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult by Ellen Huet

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I have a history being interested in cults and cult-like behaviors, so when Read Harder included a task to read a book about cults, I was excited. I’ve already read The Quiet Damage this year and have a couple others lined up, including Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult by Ellen Huet.  Let’s start with the headline – I did not enjoy this book. I am an outlier in that regard.   This is not about the content; this is an incredibly well researched work from someone who has been reporting on the One Taste cult […]

“Now, in a growing number of cities across the country, when a victim testified, she no longer did so alone.”

The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story by Pagan Kennedy

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Following news at the beginning of May that the End the Backlog campaign had finally achieved rape kit reform legislation in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Now, in the year of aggravation that is 2026. But, with a goal of being thankful for the wins and not angered by their delay I decided it was time to move The Secret History of the Rape Kit up to the top of my reading list.   Pagan Kennedy’s book traces the story of the creation of the modern rape kit and the woman, Marty Goddard, […]

“For a being as sophisticated as you are, it is baffling how little understanding you have of the composition of your own mind.”

Network Effect (Murderbot Diaries #5) by Martha Wells

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Reviewing a re-read is always a bit of a stumper for me, and even though I’ve been systematically making my way through re-reading the Murderbot books over the past couple of years the idea of trying to have something new to say about Network Effect is a bit daunting. Even though it has been over four and a half years (ouch) since I last read this book it was still fresh in my mind’s eye, there was very little that I didn’t remember from last time. But there were things that flowed much easier for […]

“…the glorious Republic cannot rise unless the monarchy falls and the monarchy cannot fall unless two women bring it down.”

A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire by Emma Southon

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When I read Emma Southon’s A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum I was pleased by the way Southon’s immense understanding of the available primary and secondary sources historians have available to work from regarding Roman history impact the ways in which we can know anything at all about things that happened so long ago. That same nuance in explaining the sources – and how much they can or cannot be trusted – is utilized to great degree in A Rome of One’s Own as Southon begins […]

“The sun is up, the skies are blue, and murder is in the air.”

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

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A few years ago, it felt like everyone and their neighbor were reading The Thursday Murder Club. I was intrigued but hadn’t pulled the proverbial trigger. But here we are and the time has arrived for me to dig in to the story of a group of friends in a retirement village who investigate cold cases for fun, and the new member they invite into their ranks, and the murder that happens that lets them jump into their first in real time crime solving.    This was just the right book to break a two-month reading slump. It […]

“The truth is that the truth is almost beside the point.”

The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family  by Jesselyn Cook

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I begin the year hunting through my very long TBR looking for books for the various Read Harder Challenge tasks. Some of those tasks are easier than others, and some I think will be easy to pick out a book for from my TBR and find that I don’t have any that fit… or maybe only one. That was the case with reading a book about cults – I thought for sure I had plenty of options for it but in fact only The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the […]



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