Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

CBR Bingo: (Grammy) Award Winner

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

by Leave a Comment

If I could only read one category of book for the rest of my life it would probably be memoir. I’ve always been a fan of the genre whether they’re written by regular folks with a sense of humor, survivors of strange upbringings and of course celebrity memoirs. During Cannonball Ten I have been revisiting a few of these old favorites by listening to the audio-book to glean any additional insights narration may offer. I read and reviewed Carrie Fisher’s 2016 memoir The Princess Diarist last year for CBR9, just a few weeks after her untimely death, but for my award winner bingo square […]

Share the post "CBR Bingo: (Grammy) Award Winner"

10/25/2018 | Post by

Vocabular Degeneration

Wishful Drinking; The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

by Leave a Comment

Wishful Drinking This is a tough book to read. It’s really funny and really interesting, but you can feel as you’re reading, with it’s repetition, it’s constant reminder that she’s had electroconvulsive therapy, memory loss, years of drug abuse, and all that that she’s just not all there anymore. But, if she weren’t so honest about everything, then it would be unbearable. Instead, there’s just a lower-lying scrim over everything knowing that so much has been lost. Regardless, the book is really funny. I read this aloud to my girlfriend and the sadness and the funniness helped created a nice […]

Share the post "Vocabular Degeneration"

8/10/2017 | Post by

I waited a few months, and it still made me sad

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

by 6 Comments

I am still sad about Carrie Fisher dying. I thought I would wait a few months until I felt ready to read the Princess Diarist, but it wasn’t long enough to keep me from feeling wistful while reading it. Fisher’s newest book was inspired by her rediscovery of journals she kept while shooting the first Star Wars movie – she began to reflect on her life as it was as her acting career began, when she was about seventeen years old. She briefly discussed what it was like growing up in her famous family, her ambivalence about an acting career, […]

Share the post "I waited a few months, and it still made me sad"

4/15/2017 | Post by

“I’m afraid that if I stop writing I’ll stop thinking and start feeling.”

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

by 2 Comments

It is hard to know how to review this book. I had planned to read this before Ms. Fisher passed away, but following her death it seemed somehow imperative to read it as soon as I could muster my strength to do so. It was time to say goodbye to Carrie, and to the character that defined her career. However, the very structure of this book limits its possible impact; it exists at all because Fisher discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the original Star Wars. The first third of the book is an introduction to the […]

Share the post "“I’m afraid that if I stop writing I’ll stop thinking and start feeling.”"

2/8/2017 | Post by

Goodnight, Sweet Princess …

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

by 5 Comments

I happened to be at the Disney park that has franchised most of the Star Wars experience last week when I heard about Carrie Fisher’s passing. Talk about bittersweet, as we saw posters of Princess Leia, from all of her franchise appearances, around the park. I first saw Star Wars on its first release in 1977, and loved her spunky take on the princess, although I have to admit my young teen eyes and heart were mostly focused on the dreamy Luke Skywalker. But I have enjoyed Carrie Fisher in many other things, so she has never been only Princess Leia to me. When Harry […]

Share the post "Goodnight, Sweet Princess …"

1/3/2017 | Post by

“I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.”

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

by 4 Comments

When Carrie Fisher died on December 27th I was devastated. When Debbie Reynolds died the following day I immediately purchased The Princess Diarist and moved it to the top of my TBR pile to hold on to just a few more hours of these dynamic women. While Carrie only mentions her mother a few times in her most recent memoir it was nice to crawl back into a time when Fisher and Reynolds were spoken about in the present tense. “I saw where someone was complaining about how much celebrities charge for autographs at these events, and in our defense someone said, […]

Share the post "“I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.”"

1/1/2017 | Post by


Shop on Amazon and Support CBR

Buy Original Cannonballer Prisco's book and help CBR!

Ad Partner