Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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What’s a tortilla? And what to put in it?

Masa: Techniques, Recipes, and Reflections on a Timeless Staple by Jorge Gaviria

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I’ve started trying to have a new cookbook at the beginning of the year and try to work my way through all or most of it; there’s a bit of a backlog on this and I’m finally getting into a Mexican vegan book I got (and reviewed) last year. Before starting into it, I saw Masa: Techniques, Recipes, and Reflections on a Timeless Staple on some ‘top books of …’ lists, and I figured that might be a good accompaniment to really get into some […]

“There are three stages in scientific discovery. First, people deny that it is true, then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person.”

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

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When I was looking at the 2022 Read Harder Challenge for the first time and saw #9: “Read the book that’s been on your TBR the longest”, I knew without looking what that book would be, even though I haven’t looked at the beginning of my list in years. And that’s because I’ve been avoiding this book for as long as I’ve wanted to read it. Just one word for you: supervolcano. In Bryson’s signature breezy, humorous, yet intelligent style, he will explain to you […]

“Imagine if all men took women seriously.”

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

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Enjoyed every bit of this. I’m at that time of year when I’m SO many reviews behind, and I’m reading a lot of good books that I just don’t feel like articulating about (I’m about to Review Amnesty a crap ton of books), but this book was such a good read for me, I do want to say a little something about it. No idea what that something is about to be; stream of consciousness is always a surprising and fun way to write reviews. […]

A Few Things Get Lost in Translation from Podcast to Book

Sawbones: the Horrifying, Hilarious Road to Modern Medicine by Dr. Sydnee McElroy, Justin McElroy

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So the question for this first review of 2021 was do I review the book I started (and finished) in 2021 first, or the one I started in 2020 and finished in 2021 first? I have decided to review Sawbones: The Book first, because I’m pretty sure I started 2020 with Will My Cate Eat My Eyeballs? (which I greatly enjoyed) and there are some strong similarities, both being medical in nature, as well as presented by an expert (one of the co-authors of Sawbones […]

Dead Dogs and Radium Girls

The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum

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The Poisoner’s Handbook is one of those rare non-fiction books that reads more like fiction. The basic narrative follows the head medical examiner of New York City and his chief toxicologist as they essentially help invent forensic science during Prohibition. Each chapter focuses on the problems, mostly murders, that revolve around a particular chemical compound including chloroform, wood alcohol, arsenic, radium, carbon monoxide, and thallium. There’s a lot of chemistry involved but it’s explained in a way that someone who hasn’t taken the subject since […]

In Which I Learned A Lot More About Chemistry Than I Ever Did In School

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

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First, a confession. I attended four different middle schools and three different high schools. I managed to take Earth Science, Environmental Science, and then Biology five times over before pursuing a liberal arts degree. I never learned much of anything about chemistry in school, so that bar may be artificially low. The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean is a wandering, at times rambling, collection of stories that winds along with the Periodic Table of Elements. Like a good liberal arts science class, the book does […]



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