Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Nothings Need to Be Heard

Real by Carol Cujec & Peyton Goddard

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It’s not often these days that I read a book and sit with it afterwards wishing there was a way to force every person on the planet to read it, but Real is that book for me. We follow Charity Woods, a non-verbal teenager with Autism who struggles to get people to believe that she is intelligent and can hack it in a mainstream classroom. From the very first paragraph of the book,  “My name is Charity. I am thirteen years old. Actually, thirteen years […]

Social justice and poetry

Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne

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Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice is a book that I really wish I did not have to rate. It is a personal experience book that everyone will get something different from it. There are elements you will find to love and to dislike; plus, things in-between. I personally am not a fan of the word “woke” in this context. But I like being “woke” to these events. I just wish there was a different word to use. And the poets, Mahogany L. Browne, […]

“A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.”

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

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If we- and now I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others- do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world It is time to listen. James Baldwin had a voice unlike any other. He transcends country, creed, and time. His work is astonishing and terribly important. The […]

A Good Starting Point

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

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Let me start by saying there is a reason why this title is on often near the top of many lists for anyone but especially white people who want to educate themselves on racism and racial inequality especially in the US. The author is up front about her being white herself, in fact she repeats that every so often throughout the book, often in order to point out that a lot of the things she has to say sound a little better to most other […]

Athletes Can Be Activists, Too

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Best for: Anyone interested in a compelling story about how a professional athlete lives his values. In a nutshell: Former (sniff) Seattle Seahawk and current Philadelphia Eagle team member Michael Bennett shares his prospective on a wide range of topics, including the NCAA, the NFL, racism, and sexism. Lines that sticks with me: “They also tell us to stick to sports when we speak out on issues. But they don’t seem to have a problem when we’re making commercials, selling their kids sneakers they can’t […]

Burn it all down

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Obviously books about rape aren’t the easiest reads in the world, but this one actually felt easier than most. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to get angry and be horrified about in here. It’s just that the authors presented their material in a way that wasn’t gratuitous or overwhelmingly gruesome. I felt like they walked the line between letting the reader know the full picture of what happened without going overboard on crime details. A few years ago, ProPublica and The Marshall Project […]



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