Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Do We Ever Really Know Our Parents?

The Nights are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar

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It sometimes feels likes a writer has used their work of fiction as a cathartic exorcism of their demons. The Nights are Quiet in Tehran feels like Shida Bazyar is laying bare parts of her own upbringing as the child of political refugees from Iran living in Germany. This gives the book a warmer, more personal touch than might have been achieved by another.   This book plays with form, switching 4 times between time periods and narrators as we follow the lives of Behzad, […]

That Rumpelstiltskin is my name

Rumpelstiltskin by Mac Barnett and Carson Ellis

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Do you like fairy or folk tales? Do you like pure telling of said fairy tales with a small change? And do you like Rumpelstiltskin? Or at least the story, it is a little hard to like Rumpelstitskin. And if you answered yes to any of the above, you should read Mac Barnett’s version of the story. It is the story we know: king meets a miller, who brags about how awesome his daughter is, the king is greedy and wants the spun gold, the […]

Whose House? Bauhaus!

Bauhaus by Frank Whitford

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Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: art. This is a book based on the art school and architectural/artistic movement called bauhaus. I don’t always like getting pushed out of my reading comfort zone except when I do. For both CBR17 Bingo AND my local library reading game respectively, I had to read a book on art. And like other subjects where I don’t have much of an interest in, I grab something that’s quick and digestible. This one clocked in under 200 pages and had […]

Have Seen the Enemy

Smiley's People by John Le Carré

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Of the many things that can be said about John Le Carré’s George Smiley series — and there is a lot to be said — the overarching lesson is how you can never really “win” at espionage. Oh sure, you can occasionally foil the enemy, maybe draw some large gains or uncover revelations. Espionage helps win war when an actual war is going on. But when war is fought in the shadows — and the Cold War most certainly was — one’s never going to […]

Love Isn’t Always On Time

Spy Line by Len Deighton

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Similar to a lot of series that have an overarching plot, Len Deighton keeps having to invent new ways to rework the chessboard. Does it always work plot-wise? I’m not sure. Do I enjoy reading it? Hell yeah I do. I’m not sure why I land with the Samson series so closely. I concede that Le Carré writes circles around Deighton in terms of espionage tales. And yet, I just love the characters Deighton creates; the ones who have come back to these tales time-and-time […]

I’m trying to think of a clever title that will grab attention but it all seems to frivolous for the subject

Run and Hide: How Jewish Youth Escaped the Holocaust by Don Brown

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The haunting cover of Run and Hide: How Jewish Youth Escaped the Holocaust by Don Brown does not really give you the whole picture of what is going to happen inside this book, but it is a great start. There are layers that will overlap, some things are familiar, others will give you more insight and others might be new stories or concepts. It does not feel like a subject for a graphic novel, but the subject translates well into this format, but it works […]



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