Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Some Scientists Keep Searching for Biological Difference

Superior: The Return of Race Science by Angela Saini

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Best for: Those interested in the history of science used in support of and to further racism. In a nutshell: For centuries, racism has received some support from those who seek to use science to suggest there are biological differences (and inferiorities) among race. This book explores many of the ways they are wrong, and many of the ways they continue their racist work. Worth quoting: (I tried to narrow this down, but there’s so much good in here) “Because of the narrow way Europeans […]

Octavia Butler – Adulthood Rites, well this was disappointing

Adulthood Rites by Octavia Butler

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I hate writing negative reviews, especially for authors I love, but this book did not do it for me. Middle parts of a trilogy are difficult, I understand that, but this book just felt repetitive and barely moved the narrative forward. This novel focuses on the first male child born of a human (with genetic input from the Oankali) on earth since humanity was saved from extinction. Lilith, the main character from the first book is the mother but she barely appears as Akin, her […]

Dawn – An intriguing take on human-alien interactions

Dawn by Octavia Butler

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I first read the Xenogenesis saga of Octavia Butler when I was a teenager and it arrived with a ton of other books I ordered from some science fiction book club (I had just gotten a job and was a dumb kid, don’t judge). What I remembered most from the initial read was the use of cancer cells by the alien race, the Oankali, to reshape their own bodies which I thought was a brilliant concept (actually still think it is brilliant). Maybe I did […]

“Caste is insidious and therefore powerful because it is not hatred, it is not necessarily personal. It is the worn grooves of comforting routines and unthinking expectations, patterns of a social order that have been in place for so long that it looks like the natural order of things.”

Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

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This was really interesting to read back to back with How to Be an Antiracist; they shed light on each other in weird ways. But they are also two very different books! My main takeaway from Caste is that Isabel Wilkerson is a great writer. I’m set to read her first book next month, and I’m now looking forward to it even more. She employs metaphor and other literary techniques in a way that you don’t normally see from non-fiction writers. It brings a depth […]

The Bearmuda Triangle

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

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Something this dire – a town of people so opposed to paying taxes that they become a country-wide hotspot for bear attacks – should not be this funny. Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling carefully walks the line between Bill Bryson and a VICE documentarian while spinning this wild story of a Free Town and the beasts- man and animal alike, within. This collection of people, carefully and deliberately documented by Hongoltz-Hetling, shoot themselves in the foot so many times and with such ferocity that it is amazing the […]



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