Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Dead Birds Can’t Fly

An Evening with Claire by Gaito Gazdanov

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This is a good book, in the sense that it is honest. But don’t be fooled by the cover! It is no delicate romance — and Claire hardly figures. In An Evening with Claire (1929), Gaito Gazdanov drags the reader through the emotional swamp of emigré estrangement, through a barely-disguised “Kolya.” Like Gazdanov, Kolya joins the ill-fated White Army in the 1910s, seemingly on a whim, after a largely apolitical and lonely childhood. Over the course of a few years, he drifts to the edges […]

Early Jazz 101

Young Man with a Horn by Dorothy Baker

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A short sharp and brilliant novella written by Dorothy Baker in 1938.  Often called the first jazz novel, it is loosely based off the life of Bix Beiderbecke, a white trumpeter who generally played with black bands, in this era of Jim Crow, and who died young of alcoholism.  Baker nailed the 1920s era, where swing was still just starting to take root, and dance bands were emerging, but then there was jazz, for those who preferred to actually listen to the music. Lady knows […]

Yes, There Will be a Quiz

1066 and All That. A Memorable History of England, Comprising all the Parts You Can Remember, Including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings, and 2 Genuine Dates by W. C. Sellar

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cbr17 bingo School A real oddball of a book!  Basically, it is a photocopy of a previously existing library book, (dated 1930) including a copy of check out card and index card (remember card catalogues?).  The back blurb states: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations.  Within the United States, you […]

Jazz Baby

Where All Good Flappers Go: Essential Stories of the Jazz Age by David M. Earle (Editor)

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The flapper girl is an icon of the Roaring Twenties, appearing in plenty of novels and films of the era. In this anthology, Pushkin Press brings together some contemporary short stories about the flapper which were published in magazines and papers of the time that celebrated these young women as a mirror of the times. I haven’t read much literature from the 1920s beyond the obligatory The Great Gatsby, but I’ve always found it intriguing how quickly social mores seemed to swing round during this […]

“They wear red bandannas knotted around their necks, as if their throats have already been cut.”

Rednecks by Taylor Brown

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When the coal miners of West Virginia attempt to unionize for better working conditions, the resulting conflict escalates close to the level of civil war – and a Lebanese-American doctor caught in between must choose where his allegiance lies. I’ve read about the Battle of Blair Mountain and the West Virginia Mine Wars before, but only in vague detail in high school history courses. Now, of course, I know a lot more – indeed, feel as though I saw it with my own eyes. Though […]

Bleeding Innocence Dry

Saving Susy Sweetchild by Barbara Hambly

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CBR16 Bingo: Disco – This mystery’s set amid the bright lights of 1920s Hollywood, featuring both it’s fast-living stars and the people behind the scenes who prop them up. English widow Emma has settled comfortably into her new life in 1920s Hollywood as her silent movie star sister-in-law’s companion and part-time script doctor. When a child star and her mother are kidnapped, she gets swept up in the mystery, if only because she and Kitty may be the only ones who really care if Susy […]



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