Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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From Preservatives to Currency to Warfare: A Salty Journey

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

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Ketchup was once a fish sauce that was made with anchovies. It was an American who first came up with tomato ketchup. This is one of many interesting bits of trivia that stood out in Salt: A World History. Others include: the Chinese were using natural gas to cook (to heat brine to obtain salt) almost 2,000 years ago. the term “red herring” came from the early New England settlers leaving red herring along their trail when they hunted in order to confuse wolves. the […]

Buggies are cool

Bugs in Danger: Our Vanishing Bees, Butterflies, and Beetles by Mark Kurlansky

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Bugs in Danger: Our Vanishing Bees, Butterflies, and Beetles by Mark Kurlansky is this years Something Rotten: A Fresh Look at Roadkill by Heather L. Montgomery for me. This is not because it has a similar theme nor is nearly as humorous as Montgomery’s book. But it does take a subject (bugs) that I have no interest in and made it interesting. I think buggies are cool, but I had no real interests in learning about them. But I liked the book cover. I figured I […]

“Let us be what we are.”

The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation by Mark Kurlansky

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Several of my most recent reviews have been related to adoption and self. That’s on purpose. I’ve recently discovered both sides of my biological family through AncestryDNA, the research of an “adoption angel”, and some amateur online sleuthing. It’s hard to describe in text what it’s like to finally name your biological heritage as an adult. It feels like coming home, maybe. One of the most interesting parts for my and my kids is that I found out that a large chunk of my heritage […]

Humans are the worst

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Bear with me, I’m about to try to get you to read a nonfiction book about a species of fish. One of my best reading years as an adult occurred a few years back when I was tearing through a lot of non-fiction food books. So when one of the contributors to the site Serious Eats mentioned that “Cod” had a permanent place on his kitchen bookshelf, I made a mental note to pick it up the next time I went to the library.  Well, […]

Hi. I’m Badkittyuno, and I’ve fallen behind again…

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Hi. Sorry. I really thought I was like 10 reviews behind and it turned out to actually be 19. So then I started up this list of reviews…and didn’t post it…and now I’m 26 behind. I would blame my kids/divorce/life, but really — I’d much rather read than write! Also, I’ve been working from home a lot and doing laundry instead of writing reviews (which is what I do when I get bored at the office), so that’s not helping. Anyway, here’s 26 brief reviews […]

Badkittyuno’s Review #1: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

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  “Salt: the only rock we eat”. I’ve really been enjoying this class of books that Goodreads calls “microhistories”, in which an author delves into a single subject with great detail. This particular book focuses on salt, which is a lot more interesting than you’d expect. Salt in some way has influenced: — the discovery of natural gas — Gandhi — taxes — all sorts of words, like soldier and salary — the creation of Tabasco sauce — travel and trade routes in addition to […]



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