My work has a book exchange as part of our Christmas party every year. The only rule is that the book needs to be related to history in some way. Last year I picked up Mark Stein’s How the States Got Their Shapes and was pretty excited about it since I really enjoyed the History Channel show of the same name. The show is quick and witty and I thought surely the book would be the same. And have some additional information that the show […]
This is not the Dickens I was Looking for
I haven’t read any Dickens. Ever. What at first was an oversight had turned over the years into a point of silly pride. Sometimes you just don’t want to read a classic author, you know? I’m sure part of it was that for many years one of the holiday events I worked was based on A Christmas Carol. The story is ubiquitous. Almost everyone knows the story of Scrooge being visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, getting himself scared straight and […]
Life’s Always Better with a Book (or two)
So, I sort of cheated this year. I volunteered to organize the Book Exchange because I loved giving and receiving books last year and selfishly wanted to do both again this year. Which means I got to assign myself my gifter and giftee (this being the cheating part). While my gift is off to its recipient today (I was even late based on the rules I made!) I now feel okay to share my gifts from Bunnybean and Joemyjoe, our Jr. Cannonballers who took part […]
“It’s a tree. Trees have great grip. Their whole body is made for gripping.”
I am not one, normally, for short story collections. Inevitably there are some which are too long, and some which are too short. And some that are just, well, terrible. My True Love Gave To Me is no exception to these general rules of short story collections. I should backtrack to say that I enjoyed the majority of the stories in this collection. The authors in question are generally well liked and reviewed (as best I can tell/remember I have only read one of the […]
“More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read.”
I promised myself that if I finished my full cannonball ahead of schedule that I would get at least one classic that I had not read off my TBR list. That brings us to The Importance of Being Earnest, which I was reminded was on my list by Aamil The Camel’s lovely review. The best part of reading this play, which I’m sure many of you read in high school although I did not, is that it is still laugh out loud funny nearly 120 […]
Women are still treated terribly, but these women knew how to survive
First, I want to thank ElCicco for reviewing this book earlier in the CBR. Both my roommate and I read it and found it hard to believe that the women in The Scarlet Sisters are real, and so were their adventures. But that’s what makes a biography worth reading, right? So, who are these sisters and what did they do? They are Victoria Woodhull and Tennie Claflin. They were the first women to be stockbrokers on Wall Street. In 1871. Yes, you read that correctly. […]
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