Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“There are three stages in scientific discovery. First, people deny that it is true, then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person.”

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

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When I was looking at the 2022 Read Harder Challenge for the first time and saw #9: “Read the book that’s been on your TBR the longest”, I knew without looking what that book would be, even though I haven’t looked at the beginning of my list in years. And that’s because I’ve been avoiding this book for as long as I’ve wanted to read it. Just one word for you: supervolcano. In Bryson’s signature breezy, humorous, yet intelligent style, he will explain to you […]

A series of existential crises packed into one easy-to-read tome! #CBRBINGO – Star

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

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Even though Stephen Hawking did an impeccable and brilliant job dumbing down all this physics and quantum mechanics and SCIENCE, I am still not science-smart enough to fully understand most of it. Good try, though, and it was so readable! And it gave me several existential crises. Like, okay, if you are just jonesing for a panic attack, pick up this book and when he starts in on the origin of the universe, just let your mind go there, see if you can encompass the […]

True life is often much more interesting than fiction

The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb by Sam Kean

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In the author’s note to The Bastard Brigade, Sam Kean responds to the question, why has he never written a book about physics before? His previous books (which are all fabulous and highly recommended by me) focus on genetics, chemistry, neuroscience, and the atmosphere, even though the author studied physics in college. He explains, “What I really love doing is telling stories, and when I’m planning a book, I look for rip-roarin’ stories first and foremost. I want heroes and villains, conflict and drama, plot twists […]

Genius? A$$? Or Both?

Hawking by Jim Ottaviani

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Stephen Hawking was a complicated man. Selfish, self-centered, intelligent, willing to work with others, wanted self-credit, chose romantic partners that seemed distant, and believed his own press as he made up most of it. You never know what will happen next in the pages of this graphic novel by Jim Ottaviani. Aptly named, Hawking¸ Ottaviani starts the story (told from the point of view of Hawking himself) from about age elven to around the eve of his death. Ottaviani makes it so you think you’ve […]

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Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife

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Years ago, I mentioned in the CBR comments that I was interested in learning more about the beauty of math, but that I was awful at math.  Some benevolent commentator told me that Charles Seife’s Zero was a great book about the beauty of math for a lay person. I can’t remember the person who told me that, but I’m appreciative of the recommendation. After years of sitting on my digital shelf, late last year this piece of niche non-fic finally got its time in […]

https://cannonballread.com/2022/02/zero-the-biography-of-a-dangerous-idea-halbs/

cbr12bingo – How To!

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe

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Randall Munroe, the engineer/author/cartoonist extraordinaire (most importantly- the creator of the excellent webcomic xkcd) is at it again with How To. He takes all sorts of simple questions and expands, explodes, and/or completely blows up the possible answers into a cacophony of hard science and absolute absurdity. Say you want to throw something really far- he starts out with an anecdote about George Washington hucking (technical term) a silver dollar across a river, which turns into a breakdown of how far silver dollars could be […]



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