Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Steampunk, historical fiction, mystery?

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

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I love steampunk and this cover is as steampunk at they get (plus the hardcover one actually has a cutout on the cover that reveals the watch on the inside page which is a really cool design).  The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley is a delightful read that defies genres.  The book takes place in Victorian London when the Irish Nationalist movement is terrorizing the city.   Bombings at Scotland yard and Victoria station are being investigated.  Could anybody but a master clockworker have […]

Now and Again

Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield

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3.5 stars In which giving people the ability to time travel goes as well as you would expect. Alice Payne is a highway-person in 1788, using her girlfriend’s clockwork robot to assist in her robberies.  Meanwhile, Prudence Zuniga is in 1889, trying to stop the first in a series of events that will lead to a War across time and history. It is not going well. Every time she interferes, the events in history play out anyway. She clearly is getting more desperate, and seems […]

A Story I Should Have Learned In History

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

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This is hard to write because there are already so many great Cannonball reviews about this book. So, I will just start by saying – You need to read this book! This story should be taught in every school. I was amazed that I had never heard of the Radium Women, and now I will never forget them. During WWI, women were hired to paint dials on watches using a brilliant new material – paint infused with radium. This paint mixture was lauded for its […]

“Anyway, we delivered the bomb.”

In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton

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A lifelong Jaws fan, the most I ever really knew about the USS Indianapolis was what was related by Quint in one of my favourite scenes in cinema, so when I spotted this book, complete with its same-surname-as-me author, it was a must buy. It turns out – as always –  that reality is far, far more horrifying than any Hollywood blockbuster could ever wish to be. For those who don’t know what happened to the Indianapolis and her men, a brief synopsis. Fresh from […]

A Gut-Churning Good Time

The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul by Eleanor Herman

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What a ride! Big thanks to badkittyuno for putting this gem on my radar. Or, in the parlance of this book, allowing me to seek of the poisons of this tome via unicorn horn. We, as humans, have done some pretty vile things to ourselves and others since…pretty much the dawn of time. The Royal Art of Poison illustrates-in graphic detail- the poisonous things that people (mostly royalty, but the common man is capable of critical nastiness as well) have been doing intentionally and accidentally to […]

Making me feel glad to feel the wind on my face

Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane

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It seems that the things I’m most fascinated by are those that also frighten me the most. Afraid of the deep sea, I’ll spend months reading about naval horrors, devour tales of explorers (whether they survived or not) while also preferring to not really leave my house, and frequently consider booking a trip through the Paris Catacombs despite being somewhat claustrophobic with a face-clawing terror of actually being underground. Perhaps that’s why I found this book so deeply interesting – an exploration of places I […]



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