Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Broken Towers

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch

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First of all, I’m really happy to be back and looking forward to doing this this year! My reading outside of work has been abysmal lately, so I’ve decided to join Cannonball Read again to have more motivation. The one thing that worked last year, despite the general slacking off, were audiobooks, or better, one series of audiobooks: I’ve fallen into the Rivers of London series and the combination of Ben Aaronovitch’s writing and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s voice acting is just excellent. I’ve just finished the […]

Starting my 2025 reading year on a high note

Into the Woods by Jenny Holiday

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This was an ARC I won from the author in a Facebook contest (!) I know, right? My opinions are my own. Gretchen Miller is a self-proclaimed badass, and she’s not lying. After growing up with financial instability, food insecurities and a lot of general uncertainness due to her father’s unpredictability, she became determined never to have to depend on anyone ever again and started earning and saving her own money as a teenager, squirrelling it away for a future project. That project became a […]

A Few Twists, Some Predictable

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

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Best for: Fans of the genre. In a nutshell: Jane Finn has some important war-related documents. Unfortunately, she has been missing for years, and even though The Great War is over, those documents are important. However, through a few seemingly random interactions, friends Tommy and Tuppence end up trying to track Jane down. Worth quoting: N/A Why I chose it: I’ve been enjoying her books and plays, and so placed holds on whatever the library had, and this was the first to become available. Review: […]

“There’s something about realizing that the birds have been here all along, and all I have to do is learn to pay attention.”

Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb

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I was so excited when the new NPR’s Favorite Books List came out this year, and I immediately pored over it, surprised by how few books I knew. But one book immediately caught my eye. I sent the title to my husband who said it was written for a niche market of one (me!). The book was Birding with Benefits (2024) by Sarah T. Dubb, and it is a romance novel about birding. Some years ago now, I discovered that there were more birds in Colorado than just Mallards […]

You’ll Be Examining More Than Just the Chicken and the Egg Here

From Darwin to Derrida: Selfish Genes, Social Selves and the Meanings of Life by David Haig

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David Haig’s From Darwin to Derrida: Selfish Genes, Social Selves and the Meanings of Life is probably not one of the most accessible books that I could close the year on—which is why I decided to make it my second last and not the last review of the year.  David Haig is an Australian biologist and current George Putnam Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. I first came across his work when reading up about genomic imprinting and maternal-fetal conflict. (These subjects are […]

Taking women’s healthcare seriously

Grown Woman Talk by Sharon Malone

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I’ve read Michelle Obama’s books, but it’s usually Barack Obama’s book recommendations that I pay attention to every year. However, I noticed Grown Woman Talk: Your Guide to Getting and Staying Healthy (2024) by Sharon Malone had a glowing recommendation from Michelle Obama. Now that I’m forty-five years old, I’ve become a little more aware of my health and the upcoming challenges that may occur with perimenopause and menopause. I’d rather not get my all of my health information from Instagram, so I thought this book might […]



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