Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Real Life Is No Neat Story

In Search of Amrit Kaur: A Lost Princess and Her Vanished World by Livia Manera Sambuy

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When Italian journalist Livia Manera Sambuy came across a portrait of the little-known Indian princess of Amrit Kaur on a trip to Mumbai, she was intrigued by the assertion that she had died in a concentration camp after being arrested by the Gestapo for selling her jewels to help Jews flee the Nazis. This is more of a travelogue or an adventure than a straightforward biography. Though the author tracks down every lead and pursues every avenue, the truth is that Amrit Kaur’s life was […]

“The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.”

The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett

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CBR18 Bingo: Right – As favorite to both James I and Charles II of England, the Duke of Buckingham served as the right hand of the king in helping govern the kingdom. When George Villiers caught the eye of James I of England, it was the start of a brilliant rise in politics and society for him. However, his close association with the increasingly unpopular crown would also lead to his downfall. I mostly think of James I as the king who was obsessed with witch-hunting, […]

“My life will be the best illustration of all my work.”

Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller by Jackie Wullschläger

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I love Hans Christian Andersen. I love his deranged and depressing stories. Three of my favorite fairytales are his, and I’ve gotten a lot of mileage for my F*cked Up Fairy Tales from poking fun at him. But he is the first person on my list of “Dead or Alive People I’d Like at My Dinner Party.” Despite this, it took me approximately one thousand years to get around to reading the well-received biography I purchased a while back, Hans Christian Andersen: the Life of […]

The Audacity of Princes

The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily by Nancy Goldstone

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Joanna I, Queen of Naples, is best known today for having stood trial for the murder of her husband during the height of the bubonic plague, but she faced many other challenges during her thirty-year-long reign. The whole time I was listening to this audiobook, I kept marveling at the absolute audacity of the royal men of this era, who over the decades launched a number of invasions and plots in an attempt to claim Naples for themselves. A woman on the throne seemed to […]

“What’s the difference between a private library and a book hoarder?” “Feces.”

The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein

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I’m a bit late jumping on the train with regards to this one. I think I’ve had a copy of this sitting on my ebook reader for years… and just never opened it up. Then, forgetting about my ebook, I then purchased the audiobook. Oops. Such a shame though; The Trauma Cleaner is one of those rare gems of a biography where a truly talented author gets a chance  to tackle a truly fascinating subject. The Trauma Cleaner is also unusual in that the subject, […]

Reasons why this is a cookbook not for me, at least not at this time

Good Things by Samin Nosrat

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Sometimes it’s pretty clear when a book is probably just fine, but maybe not for you, or at least you right now. Good Things by Samin Nosrat has some good things going for it. It’s got a lot of parts where there ar basically sets of theme and variation on a recipe or ingredient which can be nice when you’ve got a lot of something but don’t want to get bored. The premise of focusing on kind of simple pleasures is also something I can […]



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