Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About KimMiE"

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I love reading nonfiction books, especially ones about nature, zoology, brain chemistry, and psychology. I also love the classics, especially Victorian lit. Mysteries are my go-to relaxing reads, and I read fantasy and sci fi when they come recommended. I'm definitely open to new genres! (Learn more about this Cannonballer: KimMiE”'s Quick Questions interview.)

KimMiE"'s Reviews:

Trees move slowly. Sometimes books about trees do, also.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate by Peter Wohlleben

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Peter Wohlleben is a man to be admired. Having graduated from a forestry school in Germany, he worked for the forestry commission for more than 20 years but eventually became disillusioned by the common use of what he considered to be damaging forestry practices. He began applying his own ideas as manager of an ecologically-friendly beech forest, and he shares his knowledge and passion in the multiple books he’s written about trees. The Hidden Life of Trees, a New York Times bestseller, aims to make trees […]

I can’t fully get on board the Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

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Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad won both the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction, and part of me is sheepish that I can’t get behind that level of admiration. While the novel is powerful and at times poignant, I had a fundamental issue with its execution. The novel focuses on Cora, a young slave on a Georgia cotton plantation whose mother was infamous for having been the only slave to ever escape that estate. Cora is an outcast even […]

Musings on nature and a bit of tranquility

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

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As a fan of Helen Macdonald’s lovely memoir H is for Hawk, I was happy to receive Vesper Flights, a collection of her new and previously published essays, for Christmas. If you have read any of Macdonald’s work, you will know that she is an acutely personal writer, connecting her thoughts about nature to deeper personal feelings, and even modern issues and current events. Vesper Flights comprises 41 individual essays, so if you want to dip your toe into Macdonald’s writing, and maybe generate a […]

Sorry, guys, this just wasn’t for me

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

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I was excited when I saw this in one of my local little free libraries, because I remembered seeing several very positive reviews on CBR. Sometimes, though, things just don’t work out. On paper, it sounded great: love story between enemies; strong women kicking ass in battle; time travel triggering alternate histories. I wanted to love this. The execution just didn’t work for me. Red and Blue are agents in opposite sides of a war. Red’s side, “the Agency,” is a technotopia, and Blue’s side, […]

I have many thoughts, for which I’m having trouble finding words

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

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I didn’t know Susanna Clarke had a new novel until I spotted it on a trip to my favorite local bookstore. So many of us read and loved Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, with its elaborate plot, beautifully crafted characters, and Dickensian story-telling, I wondered how her new novel, so slim, would compare. Piranesi is as different from Jonathan Strange as it is equally wonderful. Piranesi lives in a house with many rooms, great halls, long corridors, and labyrinths. The lower level provides him with […]

Murder mystery + ghost story

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

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The Broken Girls is a combination murder mystery and ghost story. While flawed, it’s an entertaining read and does an admirable job balancing two murders in two time periods with the mysterious visions seen at a 1950s boarding school for “troubled” girls. In Vermont in 2014, journalist Fiona Sheridan is haunted by the 20-year-old murder of her older sister Deb. Although the killer, Tim Christopher, Deb’s former boyfriend and the son of an important local family, was quickly apprehended and has spent the last 20 […]



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