Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About TheShitWizard

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Drinking tea, reading books, petting cats.

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Weird and wonderful

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

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Piranesi is an odd and engrossing little book that feels both similar and entirely different to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (especially in terms of page numbers). Our titular character (although he’s not sure that’s really his name) lives in the House, a labyrinthine structure with waves thundering through its statue filled halls. Piranesi spends his time exploring, fishing, foraging and calculating the tides while recording everything that happens in his journals, ready for his meetings with the Other. The Other is the only other […]

It’s the little things…

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to Happiness by Bill Bailey

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Bill Bailey was apparently much more productive than most of us have been during this pandemic, having used our first UK lockdown to write this Remarkable Guide to Happiness. Despite the title, this isn’t exactly a self-help book and Bailey hasn’t swallowed the Little Book of Calm (aah, Black Books. I am definitely due a re-watch) This is a very good thing, as I think I’m actually allergic to that genre, so was glad to find this is actually a gently lovely tour through the […]

Troy Story

Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry

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We’re just one week in to 2021 and I’m already failing at my resolution to write reviews as soon as I finish a book. I blame Antifa. Anyhoo, tearing myself away from The Stupidest Coup, Troy was the perfect book to start my year with and Stephen Fry the perfect host. I’d already devoured Mythos which dealt with the birth of the gods, and Heroes which dealt with the age of Heracles, Theseus and co, so it was a safe bet that I’d love this […]

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

Gonzo by Hunter S Thompson (edited by Steve Crist & Laila Nabulsi)

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In May 1998, I was handed a copy of Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 by my new boyfriend. 22 years later, my love affair with both is still going strong. Thompson’s writing lit my brain up in a way I’d never really experienced before. Savagely funny and incredibly astute, especially when taking aim at the assassins of the American Dream, he even managed to make me understand American politics for a while (although this only ever lasts for as long as I’m […]

News from back then

Strange Victoriana: Tales of the Curious, the Weird and the Uncanny from Our Victorian Ancestors by Jan Bondeson

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Strange Victoriana, the first from my massive pile of Christmas swag, is an entertaining collection of the weird, wonderful, spooky, salacious, and sometimes downright macabre stories taken from the Illustrated Police News (IPN) – an immensely popular tabloid of the time (you’ll have seen some of its illustrations before, particularly if you’ve ever had any kind of interest in the Jack the Ripper case which the IPN went to town on). Victorians are often thought of as incredibly repressed and prudish, while a quick peruse […]



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