Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

“There’s no point in denying it. Anger is my faithful companion.”

After We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton

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CBR18 Bingo: Justice – Beatriz spends the whole novel searching for justice for the death of her brother and her family’s exile from Cuba after the rise of Fidel Castro. Though Beatriz and her family have found safety in Palm Beach after fleeing from Cuba, she has not found peace, and rages about the death of her twin brother and the policies of Castro. Working with the CIA gives her a chance to get revenge, but it may also complicate her relationship with politician Nick. […]

Nerds vs Nazis

Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham

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As promised by the title, Graham’s Book and Dagger delivers plenty of stories of academics and librarians helping the Allies in World War II through espionage and other covert ways. As the book notes, the best spy isn’t someone dashing like a James Bond. It’s someone who can’t even get a waiter’s attention. Bring in the nerds! No one can get away with collecting books, or asking questions about train gauges, or fiddling with a dam, quite like a nerd. In my mind, though, the […]

When Lovecraft Dismantles the Government

The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross

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Bob’s Back! And so are the the spoilers for previous books. Be warned! Our main protagonist may be back but all is not good with the world. The Laundry is in big trouble. A mainstay of the British government for decades (albiet a secretive one), The Laundry has suddenly come under scrutiny. Thanks to the events of The Nightmare Stacks, one could argue there is no use trying to hide magic from the general public, and the existence of the department is now public. Unfortunately, […]

The American Female Q

In True Face: A Woman's Life in the CIA, Unmasked by Jonna Méndez

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Jonna began her work at the CIA as a ‘career wife,’ supporting her husband’s job, but soon she started taking on bigger and important roles in the agency, for which she lived all over the world and eventually rose to the position of Chief of Disguise. Having read plenty about the CIA’s origins as the OG old boy’s club in which a lot of men threw ideas at a wall and hoped they’d stick during World War 2, this book was interesting to me for […]

“Every war is a war against the child.”

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear

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CBR17 Bingo: White – Behold, the cover. Also, a bonus! The title. Elinor is a veteran of two world wars and a trained killer, but all she wants now is to retreat into a peaceful, solitary existence in the English countryside. But when a violent past comes back to haunt her neighbors, she cannot help but become drawn in. I’m sure I’ll eventually get around to checking out Winspear’s long-running Maisie Dobbs series, but in the meanwhile I figured I’d pick up the standalone The […]

“Off On An Interesting Adventure”

Flirting with Danger: The Mysterious Life of Marguerite Harrison, Socialite Spy by Janet Wallach

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CBR17 Bingo: Borders – Marguerite crosses the borders of many countries during her work as a journalist and spy, but also crossed the boundaries that constrained women in this era in both her work and her personal life. After being widowed young, Marguerite Harrison plunged into work as a journalist, but her charm and her adventurous spirit leads her into a more covert role as a spy. My understanding of the history of American spycraft is mostly limited to the hijinks of the OSS during […]



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