Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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A Cathartic Marriage in Trouble Romance

Shame by Ainsley Booth

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Ainsley Booth’s Shame took me back to the year I lived in a friend’s house while she and her husband were grappling with his infidelity. I was not the person harmed, of course, but it was a strange situation navigating the intense emotions and trying to be supportive without being a prop. Reading Shame was a catharsis I didn’t know I needed. It’s angsty, painful, and very messy, but ultimately kind and healing. Booth prioritizes Grace over Luke, though they both have POV sections. Throughout […]

“Shame is the enemy of functioning.”

How to Keep House While Drowning: 31 Days of Compassionate Help by K.C. Davis

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I’ve spent the past few years unpacking a lot about myself, doing the work in therapy, reading up on things that sounds like perhaps they are me. In that I’ve also started dealing with the fact that I struggle with care tasks – what you might more easily recognize as “chores”. I always have, I don’t remember a time when completing care tasks came easily, or instinctually. And, when I’m in a bad headspace it all gets so much worse. But, I need to stop […]

In the remote border town of Q., which when seen from the air resembles nothing so much as an ill-proportioned dumb-bell, there once lived three lovely, and loving, sisters.

Shame by Salman Rushdie

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This is Salman Rushdie’s third novel (after Grimus and Midnight’s Children) and this novel takes place in a city called Q in a country that seems an awful lot like Pakistan (and is definitely Pakistan) but which we’re repeatedly told is not Pakistan. The affectation in making these claims is to pose some distance both politically and historically, but also in the storytelling. Because this novel is not historical fiction, and in fact is a confabulation of events and people (however much they seem like real people […]

*bell tolls* SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

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Trust Exercise punched me in the gut, kicked me while I was down, and still I could not leave it alone.  I was once an insufferable THEEEEAAAAATER kid, and the teens on display here made my blood curdle- out of immediate and inescapable recognition. I was a pretentious brat until far too recently (still pretentious, just too old to be a brat) and roiling guilt flowed through my veins throughout the entire book. I have been working diligently on keeping my ideas off of other […]

Rock Star Lessons in the Forgotten Arts: Amanda Palmer tackles Vulnerability, Connection, & Asking For Help

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As a fan of The Dresden Dolls for over ten years and an avid reader, I was over the moon when I heard that Amanda Palmer was going to write a book. Even moreso when I heard that it was going to be along the same lines of work that the amazing Brené Brown (who actually wound up writing the Foreword to this book). It’s no secret that Amanda is super in touch with fans, known to put out calls via twitter for everything from advice […]



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