Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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an old school day of staying in and doing nothing but reading :)

King Sorrow by Joe Hill

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Wait this is Stephen King’s son?!?! What a flex to note that you asked for some editing help from your parents, Tabitha and Stephen King (“ma and da,” if you’re curious) and saying they’ve made everything you’ve written better. Another quick thought before I forget: how cheeky to note, in-story, three celebrity authors at the book launch of [redacted as spoiler], one of which is Donna Tartt, whose The Secret History this book owes an ENORMOUS debt to. So perhaps I will start there, which is to […]

“Both history and future are fictions. Only the present is real.”

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

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From the official plot description: At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls–Helena, Leonie, Niamh, and Elle–took the oath to join Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. […]

“I don’t want to disappear. I want to exist in my body, with these new possibilities. Possibilities. Perhaps that is one of the main components of life lost to lack of representation. Options erased from the imagination. Narratives indoctrinated that we spend an eternity attempting to break. The unraveling is painful, but it leads you to you.”

Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page

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30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 3 Book 8/30 This book will not give you outrage or gossip. It will not get you all tingly with stuff it feels like maybe you shouldn’t know, and you will end the book not knowing who several of the main players are, because Elliot values privacy and is a good person. This book is first and foremost the story of Elliot coming to terms with his gender identity and transness amid a world that devalues and dismisses it, […]

lovely standalone book for fans of alternative(?) scifi

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

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CW: so much transphobia. it is overcome, but so much of it. our transgender character also is briefly in a very precarious housing situation that veers into assault. As I started planning for the “I’ve Heard No One Works in August in Europe 2022” trip (pro tip: London is not in Europe, Londoners do work, oops), I started going through my “Want to Read” list here on Goodreads, which I don’t do a good enough job of turning into reality (or curating, for that matter–there […]

Nevertheless

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

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cn. transphobia Let’s get a few things out of the way real quick: JK Rowling is a TERF. And trans women are women. I checked this one out of the library before Rowling went on her recent bigotry spree on Twitter. She’s always held problematic views regarding transfolk but in recent weeks, she’s decided to just let her phobic flag fly. She also, perhaps not coincidentally, signed the infamous Harpers letter with other popular writers and academics that tut tutted “cancel culture”, the perpetual fear of […]

This book made me feel like a bad person

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I should have stopped reading Mariana Zapata a long time ago. All of her books have elements of internalized misogyny that make me uncomfortable. Her heroines tend to be “not like the other girls” and the other girls are “whores” or bitches. Rhythm, Chord & Malykhin adds in some gross gay panic and transphobia to the self hatred. And I read the whole thing. I feel like shit.



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