How’s that for an opener? And it just gets better from there. It amused me to watch men confronted by the word “pussy” in a context outside of their control you know, like in bright pink letters on the cover of some girl’s paperback book. I especially enjoyed whipping it out during impromptu sermons given by sour-faced men on the 2 train. No lie, I started reading it so that I could make people uncomfortable on the subway.

I’ve been reading your book Raging Flower: Empowering Your Pussy by Empowering Your Mind. The story starts with a preface, a letter from Juliet to “legendary author” Harlowe Brisbane, the “ultimate authority on feminism, women’s bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff” who is “sure to help figure out this whole ‘Puerto Rican lesbian’ thing.” The first paragraph grabbed me into Juliet’s world with so much force, I almost (happily) got whiplash. Thankfully, the journey began with Juliet taking her queer, delightful, irreverent breath. In 2020, I had a bit of a reading block and only read a grand total of seven books, so signing up for Cannonball Read this year for a full Cannonball was a big challenge to undertake. After a mix-up at the local bookshop where I ordered it from was cleared up (they handed me the graphic novel and not the hardcover I ordered – and I have nothing against graphic novels, I just wanted to read all of her words first), I went home and devoured the entire book in two and a half days. From the first time I heard author Gabby Rivera’s laugh and her description of her book on Brene Brown’s podcast “Unlocking Us”, I knew I had to read Rivera’s debut novel “Juliet Takes a Breath”.

Juliet takes a breath by gabby rivera