Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A self help health book that isn’t terrible?

Outlive by Peter Attia

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I really wanted to hate this book. I picked it up exclusively to critique it from an informed perspective. I eat my words (and a high protein diet). The fact that Dr. Attia is in fact a doctor means little to me, because so is Dr. Oz. Working in a professional area with niche specializations has inoculated me from taking the word of a generalist in an area where specialization exists. Going into this book, I expected broad, decisive conclusions with little to no real […]

The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

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Another short one here primarily because the parts I most want to talk about in this story are spoilers. Book three of Dungeon Crawler Carl is top notch. The world continues to expand, the action gets more intense, and Donut and Carl’s relationship (the driving heart of the story) continues to deepen. In book 3 we have an additional confound: Mordecai is temporarily whisked away. Here we get an option for Carl’s role to strengthen, as he’s forced into the adult role keeping his garbage […]

A surprising and honest view of a courtesan’s life

A Woman of Pleasure: A Novel by Kiyoko Murata

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This novel was first published in Japan in 2013. The English translation by Juliet Winters Carpenter came out in 2024. A Woman of Pleasure is a novel based on real events that happened in Japan in 1903 when prostitutes organized for their rights. It is a fascinating novel that reveals the personal journey of its main character, Ichi, a 15-year-old girl recently sold into prostitution. But the novel also provides a lot of terribly interesting information about licensed prostitution and its place in Japanese society […]

The Expanse just keeps getting bigger

Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey

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I had friends recommend The Expanse tv series to me over the years, and I had trouble getting into it based of the first few episodes. I finally tried again last year, used my patience, and was HOOKED. I also read online that the book series was also great; I am generally able to separate and enjoy books from series/movies as two separate things (*cough* Wheel of Time fans *cough*), so decided to give the books a go as well. Abaddon’s Gate is book 4 […]

And My Girl Nailed the Landing!

The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty

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So we are coming around the corner to the final stretch of this Daevabad trilogy.  Are we going to get a solid ending?  Or a weak sauce wander off into philosophical musings (looking at you His Dark Materials).  One never knows.  But my girl does not fail me.  Final battle for Daevabad is just part of this finale.  We are also off to Egypt, where Ali’s mother, the Queen, is currently living (and also the site of Nahri’s earliest memories) and then there are ginormous […]

Nostalgia and Elegy

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

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But as I drove away and turned back in the car to take what promised to be my last view of the house, I felt that I was leaving part of myself behind, and that wherever I went afterwards I should feel the lack of it, and search for it hopelessly, as ghosts are said to do, frequenting the spots where they buried material treasures without which they cannot pay their way to the nether world.” Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited is an absorbing, beautifully written […]



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