Cannonball Read 9

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

The end of the beginning

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

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When this book first came out, a friend of mine texted me and told me I had to read it. I dutifully added to my TBR list, but privately I thought I’d never get around to it. I couldn’t imagine ever being in a mood where I’d want to read the memoir of a man who died of cancer in his 30s. I work in direct service, and it’s a convenient excuse to get out of a lot of “sad” things. I see real life sadness everyday, I tell myself–I’m not going to go to see tearjerker movies. I’m not […]

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6/19/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:28 |

Culture Shock

First Fieldwork: The Misadventures of an Anthropologist by Barbara Gallatin Anderson

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First Fieldwork was an assigned reading when I took Intro to Anthropology in college. That was a good 15 years ago, and since then I’ve reread this book probably five times. It’s short, it’s interesting, and it’s hilarious. Barbara Gallatin Anderson recounts a fieldwork assignment in the tiny fishing village of Taarnby, Denmark. She and her husband are there to study the changes that urbanization is making to the culture of the small town. To this non-anthropologist, that sounds dull as dishwater, and I’m guessing I wouldn’t have had any interest in a genuine ethnography. First Fieldwork, however, is not […]

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6/15/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:27 |

We need to talk about Peter

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

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Half Cannonball, and a third of the way through the Inspector Gamache books! Like all the other Inspector Gamache books, this one is great. If you’re not familiar, these books take place in Quebec (mostly in a small town called Three Pines, but this one takes place at a remote hotel not too far away), and star Inspector Armand Gamache, a homicide detective and one of the best people in literature. By “best” I don’t mean best written (although he is pretty well written), but I mean like literally one of the best people ever. He’s kind, forgiving, smart, gentle, […]

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6/6/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:26 |

Wolves at the Door

The Wolves Chronicles by Joan Aiken

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There are actually 12 books in the Wolves Chronicles, but when I was a kid I only read six of them, and these were the six that I recently reread and am reviewing: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Black Hearts in Battersea, Nightbirds on Nantucket, The Stolen Lake, The Cuckoo Tree, and Dido and Pa. The series takes place in alternate timeline in 1800s England (in this timeline, James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution, and so throughout the books his descendants sit on the throne of England. The other main difference is the number of wolves in […]

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6/4/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:25 |

You Mean All This Time, We Could’ve Been Friends?

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

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The Prestige tells the story of a lifelong feud between two magicians in turn-of-the-century England. You’ve probably seen or at least heard of the movie, which starred Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman (and David Bowie as Nicola Tesla! Whee!). The Prestige is the story of Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier, two magicians who rise to fame somewhat simultaneously, and whose lives are marred by a deadly feud that started when Borden exposed Angier as a fraud at a seance. That is. . . one weird sentence. Things get even weirder, though, when the two compete over who has the better […]

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5/29/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:19 |

Thoughts and Prayers

Columbine by Dave Cullen

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I drive a lot for work, so I’ve started listening to audiobooks when I get sick of music. I’ve had Columbine on my TBR list for years and since it was free on Audible, I thought maybe it might be a good choice. ‘Twas not. Now, please don’t confuse my review of the book itself with my review of the audio version. The book itself was exactly what you’ve heard: powerful, disturbing, sad, and full of new information about the Columbine High School massacre that I didn’t know before. But if you want to read this, do yourself a favor […]

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Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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4/29/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:18 |

I Wish There Were More of These

The Sibyl in Her Grave by Sarah Caudwell

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Man, I loved these books. I slowly stretched them out over a whole year so I could really enjoy them. The Hilary Tamar books are a series of legal mysteries, which I know might sound horrifyingly boring, but in fact they are a true delight. If you like mysteries, or witty, clever writing, you should try these. Sadly, there are only four of them, but they’re all fantastic. The Sibyl in Her Grave is the last one of the series, and like the others, it’s narrated by Professor Hilary Tamar, who works at Oxford but spends a fair amount of […]

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4/29/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:17 |

Until Your Old and Broken Bones are Laid into Their Resting Place

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

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When I was about 14 or so, my family was in Wisconsin visiting relatives. We decided to go see Taliesin, but when we got there and my parents found out that tickets were like $50 a person, or maybe they were sold out or something, we had to find something else to do last minute. We ended up at the House on the Rock. Now, if you’ve never been to the House on the Rock, I can’t do it justice with sheer words. I simply cannot. Do a Google image search for it, and that will give you a small […]

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4/19/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:16 |

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