Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

New Rural Chinese Mystery Series!

Thief of Souls by Brian Klingborg

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Thief of Souls is the first book in the Inspector Lu Fei mystery series. I’m not sure how long the series is intended to go, but I know a second book was released earlier this year. In fact, Bookpage’s review of the newest installment is what had me track this one down at my local library. Inspector Lu Fei is a mid-level law enforcement agent for China’s Public Security Bureau (PSB). He lives and works in the rural agricultural town of Raven Valley. The reader […]

Don’t Go West

The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War by James D. Bradley

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Like a lot of Americans, I learned the broad strokes about the Pacific theater in World War II. The Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor. Attacked us! Obviously, we couldn’t just stand pat. So we warred with them from island-to-island until we had no choice but to drop the atomic bomb and end the war. They were the aggressor and it was all their fault. I’m reluctant to call this narrative propaganda. Japan did attack us. But the history of the war in the Pacific […]

“Promise and potential:” Overlooked Vocational School Students in China

Class Work: Vocational Schools and China's Urban Youth by T.E. Woronov

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Stanford University Press was having an 80% off summer sale, which was an amazing deal, so I got a bunch of books that I otherwise would never have thought to purchase since academic press prices are usually prohibitively high. Class Work is the first of the batch that I’ve read, and it was a good start. This is a slim volume that packs a lot of information about the Chinese school system and the impact of testing and government efforts to make or re-mold class structures. […]

No One to Really Root For but It’s Still Somehow Pretty Good

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

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She Who Became the Sun definitely lived up to the hype; the characters are interesting and complex, and there is plenty of action and plot. What bothered me was that there was really only one character who stood up for general human decency, not just “I must take charge of my destiny no matter what I have to do (including murdering innocent people and not so innocent people)”. The basic premise is pretty well known already: in a quasi historical early medieval China, a nameless […]

From Thor to Monkey Kings

Arthur and the Golden Rope: Brownstone's Mythical Collection by Joe Todd-Stanton

Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx: Brownstone's Mythical Collection by Joe Todd-Stanton

Kai and the Monkey King: Brownstone's Mythical Collection by Joe Todd-Stanton

Leo and the Gorgon's Curse: Brownstone's Mythical Collection by Joe Todd-Stanton

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Joe Todd-Stanton has a four (so far) book series about the Brownstone family. They are adventurous children who have amazing times being heroes. The narrator is Professor Brownstone, a Brownstone descendent, and his vaults of books and artifacts. Well they don’t tell the story, but they help us find the stories, as each piece is linked to one of his ancestors and each has its own wonderful, far-out story to tell. The first in the series is Arthur and the Golden Rope: Brownstone’s Mythical Collection. Arthur […]

Soldier For Fortune

Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler and the Making and Breaking of the American Empire by Jonathan M. Katz

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An excellent read and an infuriating read. Worth all five stars. And like Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction and Ackerman’s Reign of Terror, you’re guaranteed to be peeved on every page. I knew the United States had a colonizing history dating back, well really to its foundation through the US-Mexican War of the 1840s, but more specifically from the end of the 19th century onwards. I knew that we captured many islands in the Caribbean and Pacific respectively, even if I didn’t know the hows-and-whys. Jonathan M. Katz does […]



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