Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Colonies, Cults and Crimes

The Colony: Faith and Blood in a Promised Land by Sally Denton

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I have the Harris County Public Library to thank for this recommendation.  Before jumping into The Colony, I have to confess, I wasn’t really aware that the Mormon Church had much of a significant presence in Mexico. But it turns out there a number of prominent  fundamentalist Mormon families have been established there since the US outlawed polygamy in the 1880’s.  The book opens with the 2019 murders of three women and six of their children as they drove through Northern Mexico. While initial reports […]

“Luck is an undependable commodity.”

Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon by Michael P. Ghiglieri, Thomas Myers

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Two veteran adventurers and employees who worked in the Grand Canyon compile the stories of all the many people who have died in the canyon and the diverse fates which have befallen them. I visited the Grand Canyon about a decade ago, and I remember being struck by the sheer immensity of the landscape, as well as how colorful it was. My family and I just biked along the rim for a few hours, but always took plenty of care to keep away from the […]

I’m not tough enough for the Canadian oil sands

Ducks by Kate Beaton

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I first became aware of Kate Beaton through her charming picture book, The Princess and the Pony, released in 2015.  My, at the time, young daughters loved the book about a tiny, warrior princess who wants a noble steed like the older warriors.  Instead on her birthday she is gifted a pony that farts too much. Shortly after the publication of her graphic novel autobiography, Ducks, in 2022, it seemed everyone on the internet was declaring what a good book it was.  However, I wasn’t really […]

The American Female Q

In True Face: A Woman's Life in the CIA, Unmasked by Jonna Méndez

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Jonna began her work at the CIA as a ‘career wife,’ supporting her husband’s job, but soon she started taking on bigger and important roles in the agency, for which she lived all over the world and eventually rose to the position of Chief of Disguise. Having read plenty about the CIA’s origins as the OG old boy’s club in which a lot of men threw ideas at a wall and hoped they’d stick during World War 2, this book was interesting to me for […]

“What’s the difference between a private library and a book hoarder?” “Feces.”

The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein

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I’m a bit late jumping on the train with regards to this one. I think I’ve had a copy of this sitting on my ebook reader for years… and just never opened it up. Then, forgetting about my ebook, I then purchased the audiobook. Oops. Such a shame though; The Trauma Cleaner is one of those rare gems of a biography where a truly talented author gets a chance  to tackle a truly fascinating subject. The Trauma Cleaner is also unusual in that the subject, […]

An Adults Only Lord of the Flies

Batavia by Peter FitzSimons

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The Batavia, the pride of the Dutch East India Company, is on its maiden voyage from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies when it wrecks off just off the coast of western Australia. But the tragedy of the Batavia stems not from the forces of nature, but from the evil in men’s hearts. I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts about this story in the last couple years, and was so curious about this strange, dark story, part survival story and part true crime, that I decided […]



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