Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A tough read about tough topics…but oh so lovely.

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

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“In each picture, Claude seemed to be shrinking. He had a big family, yes, so it was hard to fit everyone on the page, and he was the littlest of them, true, but Claude got smaller and smaller.” Penn and Rosie always wanted a daughter. But as life would have it—they had five sons. But one night their youngest, Claude informs them that he’d like to be a little girl when he grows up. While their son is advanced, particularly in his vocabulary, they still […]

“We’re not helpless. Novels are full of ragtag bands facing impossible odds.”

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

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Rule of Wolves is a good conclusion to the grand story arc begun back in Shadow and Bone.  If you’ve stayed with the Grishaverse to this point, this book is a must read.  And for those who particularly like the “Six of Crows” duology, the gang gets back together for a heist! I enjoyed this book!  But I’m finding it hard to review without spoilers so here are themes within the book.  Ravka has been ramping up it’s technological marvels, adding flying machines and submersibles to […]

They fought the law, and everybody won.

About a Girl: A Mother's Powerful Story of Raising Her Transgender Child by Rebekah Robertson with Georgie Stone

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Rebekah and her husband were excited when they had twin boys, George and Harry, and quickly settled into family life. George knew from a very early age, however, that she was really a girl, and started going by Georgie. While Rebekah was immediately on board with Georgie’s gender identity, dad was unsure at first about how to deal with this revelation. It didn’t take him long though, to realise what was happening and to join in with supporting Georgie’s expression of herself.  Mum, dad and […]

Just look at this beautiful cover. And the book inside is just as lovely.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

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This book was excellent. It fits comfortably in with other YA books in terms of subject matter and content, but it’s so well written it stands out from the pack and feels extremely original, like all things with specificity do. Callender’s protagonist Felix is a trans boy going to a summer art school in NY city, and basically living with his best friend in an apartment his best friend’s wealthy but neglecting parents provide for him. Felix’s mom left when he was little, which is […]

“Seriously, my friend’s daughter is constantly misgendered because she favours clothes with dinosaurs on. EVERYONE KNOWS ALL DINOSAURS WERE BOYS AND THAT’S WHY THEY’RE EXTINCT.”

The Gender Games by Juno Dawson

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Been sitting on this review for two months now, trying to land on a star rating, and how to articulate what I wanted to say. Ultimately, this is a good book that is part memoir and part feminist/social text about being transgender (with a focus on the UK), with some intersectional feminist ideas thrown in. It’s also written in a very colloquial, humorous style that is very much not the norm for these kinds of books. This is what threw me, because I couldn’t decide […]

“I often described my sudden shift in self-awareness as feeling as if a demon had entered my room in the middle of the night, startled me awake by whispering, ‘What if you were a man, sort of?’ into my ear, then slithered out the window before I could ask any follow-up questions.”

Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

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This would honestly be five stars except for a handful of essays/interludes that were too experimental and obscure for me to get anything out of them. I’m going to keep this review short and sweet for a couple of reasons, the first being that the time for me to have said something detailed, thoughtful, and incisive about it would have been back in late April when I first finished it. That time has now long passed. The second reason being that I’m not sure I […]



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