Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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A fascinating historical woman I knew nothing about before and now want to tell everyone about her.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray

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I forget how I found out about The Personal Librarian but as I read about it, knew it was perfect for my book club.  Historical fiction – Check, Talented woman – Check, About a library and books – Check.  We haven’t met up yet so I don’t know the other’s reactions but I found it a fascinating read that delivered on the promises of the book blurbs.  Author, Pam Jenoff, has this to say, “An extraordinary tale that is both brilliant historical fiction and an important […]

Academic Fiction at it’s Best but also Worst

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

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It’s probably been 15 years since I’ve read anything substantial by Umberto Eco. I’m pretty sure I was maybe a sophomore or junior in college the first time I read The Name of the Rose. Now, I find myself in the position of needing to reread it for a work-related event. In the intervening decade and a half, I’ve gotten a lot better at Latin, and I’ve also been exposed to a lot more primary source material concerning theology, philosophy, science, literature, and history of the […]

More Bad Ass Librarians Needed

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Last review of the year, here we go. Not counting the epilogue, this book runs 227 pages. The first and last 50 pages contain some genuine bad-ass librarianism. The middle 100 pages are the political history of the region, which is relevant and good info to know, but seems to be a separate narrative (non-fictional, but still a different story). If you title a book The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, most of the book should be about that. This is the problem with the book. […]



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