Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About reginadelmar

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Inspired to climb back into CBR after a few year hiatus. Promise to quit any book that doesn't hold my attention after the first 50 pages. Life is too short. she/her

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Smokey the Bear was Wrong

The Big Burn by Timothy Egan

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The Great Fire of 1910 burned 3 million acres in Western Montana, Northern Idaho, parts of Washington and British Columbia. The fire burned in  newly created national forests including the Bitterrroot, Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai and Lolo. Timothy Egan tells the story of the fire and the larger story of the creation of public lands through the efforts of Teddy Roosevelt, forester Gifford Pinchot and John Muir. The politics of resource conservation and the role of fire are certainly relevant now, particularly with the additional complexities […]

Historical Fiction Doesn’t Always Work

Lilliam Boxfish Takes A Walk by Kathleen Rooney

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According to the author this story was inspired by the life of Margaret Fishback. She was the  highest paid female copywriter in the world during the 1930s while working for R.H. Macy’s. She was also a published poet. The poetry included in the book was written by Fishback. All of this seemed like a great set up for a novel, and yet, for me it didn’t quite work. The structure of the novel centers around New Years Eve 1984, when Lillian Boxfish is 85 years […]

Cheetos, Yes or No?

Ingredients, The Strange Chemistry of What We put in Us and on US by George Zaidan

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George Zaidan is a chemist, not a nutritionist. Faced with so many contradictory claims about foods and cosmetics, he brings his scientific experience to explore what is good or bad for us. If you’re looking for answers that confirm your beliefs: “Cheetos are poison” or “Cheetos are harmless” this is not your book. Rather this is a light science book that tries to be funny with lots of young boy humor (he likes to say “shit” a lot) that sets out to help the reader […]

The Genealogy of Southern Cooking

The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty

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This is a book that showcases my shortcomings as a reviewer. I really enjoyed listening to this book, but am struggling to write about it. It is a memoir, a history of southern cuisine and a book on genealogy. Twitty reads the book himself which works well because the book is a very personal journey. He describes himself as an “obsessive cook with compulsive genealogist tendencies who can point to a map of Africa, Europe, North America, and with it, the South, and guide you […]

“Stranger, whoever you are, open this to learn what will amaze you.”

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND by ANTHONY DOERR

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The book begins: “Stranger, whoever you are, open this to learn what will amaze you.” Consider me amazed. The review excerpts in the front of the book gush with praise: “sings with beauty,” “sweeping and atmospheric,” “beautiful and enthralling. . . “ Yep. Anthony Doerr has said Cloud Cuckoo Land is a paean to books, but it is also a paean to great stories passed on through generations. Parts of the narrative may get lost, or changed by the teller, but a good story remains. […]

No Code Breaking Necessary to Enjoy this One

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

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This historical fiction is about women code breakers at Bletchley Park (Officially the Government Code and Cypher School) during WWII. The three main characters, Mab, Osla and Beth are thrown together through Mab and Isla’s arrival at Bletchley Park. Mab is from Shoreditch. She is unabashedly clawing her way out of poverty and aiming toward stability and a better life by marrying up (so to speak). Osla is a socialite, of Canadian birth but English at heart. She has stayed in London to help with […]



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