Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Kicking off 2020 with Girl Power!

Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy

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I thought I knew a little bit about code breaking and World War II because I was aware of Bletchley Park, Alan Turing, and Enigma. And I was correct, I did know a little about it. Surprisingly (and maybe sadly?), I was unfamiliar with the story of 10,000 American women who served as codebreakers for both the U.S. Army and Navy during World War II. Code Girls tells the remarkable story of the work, lives, and patriotism of these women. I have to confess that […]

“The world was fragile. One day, growth; the next day, kindling.”

The Hunger by Alma Katsu

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The best horror stories are already frightening before the monsters even show up. The doomed Donner Party has always been the quintessential example of the harsh realities for pioneers trekking West to the promise of California, and most already know the tragedy awaiting the group at the center of The Hunger. While bringing their wagon train across the country to find new fortunes, the infamous Donner Party made many key mistakes, and found themselves staring down the barrel of the harshest conditions the West had […]

My Pen is Dry, The Door is Open, and Something is Waiting

Melmoth: A Novel by Sarah Perry

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This is a modern novel that strikes the perfect feeling of a Gothic novel in the style of Poe or Shelly. It is eerie and creepy with a ton of atmosphere and most of the fear and horror coming from not jump scares, but just that feeling that something is going to happen. Also, the monster is the humans. It’s always the humans… but not always int he way you think. Fair warning, I don’t give any major spoilers ahead, but this is a very […]

“I see poisoners—so calculating, so cold-blooded—as most like the villains of our horror stories.” (CBR11 Bingo)

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum

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I don’t know what it says about me that I quite enjoy medical history and historic New York, but I do know that it says that The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York is right up my alley. It also wins the prize for longest title of the books I’ve read this year. Blum’s book tracks the time when a pair of forensic scientists, Charles Norris and Alexander Getler began the chemical detective work that forensic science […]

…using our legs to proceed across the landscape.

A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson

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CBR11 BINGO: Travel (BINGO! Pajiba square to Science square) This is one of those books that I heard about forever ago and passed by constantly on bookshelves. Novels with nature as a character are kind of my thing but non-fiction generally is not. Once again, Cannonball Read BINGO has pushed me to read something I most likely would have never gotten around to. (I’m just 3 squares from a black out, people. THREE and I will see it to fruition!) A quick Google search of “best travel books” landed […]

Old Letters

Letters to Phil: Memories of a New York Boyhood 1848 - 1856 by Gene Shermerhorn

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In trying to find some primary source material on the 19th century history of New York, I stumbled upon Letters to Phil: Memories of a New York Boyhood 1848 – 1856. It was right in the time period I needed, so I took a shot on the old edition. Published in 1982, it’s a slim book, and not much more than the sum of it’s parts on the surface. A New York native named Gene Shermerhorn wrote a series of letters to his nephew, who was […]



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