Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A timely reminder that Nazis are evil and fighting them is heroic

D-Day Girls by Sarah Rose

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D-Day Girls: The Spies who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis and Helped Win World War II is a work of non-fiction about the women who worked in secret, behind the lines in France in the years of WWII leading up to D-Day. These women were recruited, vetted and trained in England to be dropped behind enemy lines. There, they helped co-ordinate the  resistance and lay the groundwork for the allied invasion. As their work was part of secret intelligence (the Special Operations Executive or SOE), […]

In which I rant about the heroine

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

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I was about the day I finished The Girl in the Tower-years old when I realized two things: one, this series is YA darkish fantasy romance; and two, I don’t especially care for YA darkish fantasy romance. The problem is that there are a few characters I do want to see what happens to and the setting is interesting, with its mix of Russian folklore and history. I also do like the conflict from the first novel, not so much present here, between the old […]

Death Always in the Castle

Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park, 2nd Edition by Lee H. Whittlesey

We have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

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Two books, very unalike, and yet sharing one general darkness. Death, spoken and unspoken, biogenic and anthropogenic. Non-fiction, and fiction. Come sit and have tea with me, won’t you? The sugar’s right there.

I was rooting for the whale.

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

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Most glad to be sitting on my comfortable couch right now, not having to resort to cannibalism. I mean, there’s cannibalism in this is what I’m saying, and while it’s not described in extreme detail, it is *described* . I feel like I might have gotten PTSD from having to read about these people I didn’t even really like (except for maybe the cabin boy) having to eat each other. So: that is my warning to you, and historical spoilers? I guess? This book climaxes […]

I don’t really know why I disliked this book about time-traveling bodyswaps in Tudor England.

Spark by Catherine Friend

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This book made me very cranky. In fact, I ended up disliking it so much I requested a refund from Amazon, which I guess they don’t normally do if you don’t like a book on Kindle. (They gave it to me, But just this once, because I’m such a loyal customer! Honestly, though, it was a $10 e-book and I did not tolerate it enough to permanently part with $10.) Honestly, I’m not sure how informative this review will end up being if you’re curios […]

Dead Dogs and Radium Girls

The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum

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The Poisoner’s Handbook is one of those rare non-fiction books that reads more like fiction. The basic narrative follows the head medical examiner of New York City and his chief toxicologist as they essentially help invent forensic science during Prohibition. Each chapter focuses on the problems, mostly murders, that revolve around a particular chemical compound including chloroform, wood alcohol, arsenic, radium, carbon monoxide, and thallium. There’s a lot of chemistry involved but it’s explained in a way that someone who hasn’t taken the subject since […]



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