Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

What Comes Around Goes Around

The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen

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When this book was written, in 2006, it was more of a historical look at the unpopular WWI draft and the worldwide influenza epidemic that occurred simultaneously towards the end of the war.  Reading it now, some 16 years later, it is far more difficult reading.  No longer is it simply an historic exercise, but is far more fraught.  And I might add this came off a list of mine of books to read and I really had no idea what I was getting into.  […]

Thanks So Much to My Cannonballer!

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Thanks so much to my awesome cannonballer for getting me two items off my list! Unlike years past, I didn’t have a good idea of what I wanted so I decided to list two books that sounded fun but also weird. I’m hoping they’ll take me out of my comfort zone a bit while hewing close to genres I like. Those books are: Reptile Memoirs by Silje Ulstein High John the Conqueror by Tariq Goddard Thanks so much to whoever got me these two. I’m incredibly grateful and […]

Three books that kind of played off each other accidentally

Dispatches by Michael Herr

Koko by Peter Straub

No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker

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The post title here refers to the fact that I decided to read all three of these books before any kind of consideration about how they might be tied together. In fact, only with Dispatches did I even have any idea what the books were even about. The other two just connected in unintended ways.   Dispatches – 5/5 Dispatches is a series of memoir, oral history, and reportage pieces from the embedded journalist Michael Herr, who was in his mid-20s when he was in […]

More books

Guards! Guards by Terry Pratchett

Fires of Eden by Dan Simmons

1599 by James Shapiro

Penses by Blaise Pascal

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Guards! Guards! – 4/5 One of the best titles for a book, and it reminds me a lot of the following old Onion article: So I also feel like many many many people already know this book pretty well. I am not the biggest Discworld fan (I generally like irreverence, but not whimsy and I am not actually a huge British comedy fan, especially where the jokes are built on maximalism), but I did enjoy this one. The book focuses primarily on the city’s defenses, […]

I feel like a Jerk, but I didn’t like it

The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin

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Steve Martin is a talented guy. He’s had a successful stand-up comedy and acting career since the 1970s; he’s written/co-written funny screenplays like The Jerk, Three Amigos, and L.A. Story; he’s published novels and written a Broadway musical; he’s an avid art collector and he plays a mean banjo; he’s won five Grammys, an Emmy, and a host of other awards. Throw in that stint performing magic on Main Street in Disneyland and you can say he’s lived a highly successful life. So, I feel kind […]

Greek Myths: A Retelling

Greek Myths: A Retelling by Charlotte Higgins

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I thought this was so good. The cover was fantastic and I loved that as I read this one (I bought this in hardcover yesterday at a local bookstore) the cover sparkled. Higgins does a great job of following Greek myths through many of its famous women, but they are all linked by the loom and their weave depicting some of the terrible things the gods and goddesses have done. We start off with Gaia and Uranus and how their offspring where the Titans. And […]



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