Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


The Banality of Good

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

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Otto and Anna Quangel are indifferent toward living under Nazi rule, but when they receive the news that their son was killed in the war, they begin a silent campaign of defiance. There’s a phrase in the afterword that’s used to sum up the central theme of this book – ‘the banality of good.’ There’s plenty of well-known stories of resistance against oppressive powers from all eras – certainly plenty I can recount from World War Two alone, plenty of lives saved and a huge […]

Woman, Mother, Interpreter, Spy

A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe

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I knew early on this was not going to be the book I expected and I mean that in a complimentary sense. I thought this would be a cozy-esque female housewife in the 50s using her wiles to navigate Manhattan cocktail parties and deduce who may or may not be a Soviet sympathizer. There’s nothing cozy about this, however. It’s a raw, intriguing look at the perils of motherhood for women in the 1950s, with a spy story tacked on in the background. The espionage […]

Some really beautiful moments don’t necessarily add up to a masterpiece of a novel

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

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CBR16 BINGO: Détente, because Billy is always trying to keep the peace Amor Towles is an undeniably talented writer. Having fallen in love with A Gentleman in Moscow and being charmed by Table for Two, I came to expect that I would adore just about anything he wrote. And certainly, there is a lot to like in The Lincoln Highway. At times I would be cruising along like the old Studebaker in the story when a particular turn of phrase or small vignette would stop me […]

The Spy Zoo

The Secret Hours by Mick Herron

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I picked up this book because it wasn’t supposed to be connected to the Slow Horses series. But I’ve read in other places that it might be? I don’t know, use your own judgment if you want to avoid the most minute of spoilers. Some writers are like exercising: you just have to push through the initial strain in order to get the good stuff. I hate exercising but I can’t think of a better example. I’ve tried Slow Horses several times and I can’t focus on Herron’s style. […]

Found Family with Spies, Killers, and Secrets but It’s Cozy

Spy X Family Family Portrait by Aya Yajima, Tatsuya Endo

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For some reason I really needed a cozy read not long ago; I’m part way through something that sounded like it should have but is turning out to not be that. I put down book #1, and went for option 2: manga. Or to be more precise, a series of short stories based on the manga (and also now anime) Spy X Family titled Spy X Family: Family Portrait. If you know the series it helps but it’s not totally mandatory as there is a […]

“Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name…”

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

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3.5 stars Nowhere Books Bingo: Banned books (Wasn’t published until 27 years after Bulgakov’s death, and only then in a censored version. ) CBR16 Bingo: Cult (cult classic, and there’s the whole Devil and his entourage as a central plot point – that’s pretty cultish, right?) I can’t remember exactly how long The Master and Margarita has been on my TBR list, but it’s certainly more than twenty years. A quick glance on Goodreads shows me that 15 of my friends have rated it four […]



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