Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“He had been defying us all. Yet there was nobody in the court who did not look superior to him.”

Radio Treason: The Trials of Lord Haw-Haw, The British Voice of Nazi Germany by Rebecca West

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Radio Treason was originally a series of New Yorker dispatches from Rebecca West, covering the trial for treason of William Joyce, who was a radio propagandist for the Nazis nicknamed “Lord Haw-Haw.” This book is a reissue of these columns into one book, which is unfortunately and depressingly extremely of the moment. I had a lot of moments of recognition and sadness reading this as to how little things have changed in terms of the small minded and pathetic nature of Fascists. West details the trial and […]

“How does a government steal a child and then imprison him? How does it keep it a secret? This is how.”

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A very good and heartbreaking book to start the year with. Lemn Sissay’s powerful memoir My Name Is Why details his time in British foster care and shows the casual cruelty of the authoritarian system he was placed in. He had to fight the government for thirty years to get access to his records and he uses the paper trail of comments by his social worker, reports on his progress, and other pieces of the puzzle to show the gaps in the record and how […]

“Phoenix-like, he flamed against the cloudless sky, looking down upon our miniature school world and all the golden fields of Fairacre.”

Village School by Miss Read

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CBR14Bingo: Cozy My mom had the complete set of these when I was a kid and I’d read them and feel very grown up. All I remembered about the book as an adult was a feeling of coziness and warmth, hence the bingo square. I was struck a few weeks ago with the urge to revisit these and see if my opinion had changed, so I picked up the first book and it was a good quick palate cleanser read after the longer commitment that […]

“I felt that I was now old enough to become fussy and spinsterish if I wanted to:” A Gentle Post-War Comedy of Manners

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

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This is a fast read but it has a lot of depth to it. I enjoyed it and it was the kind of book that surprises you and is counter to what you were expecting, in a good way. Excellent Women was a little outside of my normal reading pattern in that I’m not always a literary fiction type person, but this turned out to be more of a comedy of manners novel than the literary accolades suggested. And it’s good to broaden one’s reading […]

Spooky Spelunking Ahoy!

Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch

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…but before we dig in, let’s celebrate a Pulp reference! Well, our victim had a thirst for knowledge,” said Stephanopoulos. “He was a student at St. Martins College. Ha! Delightful. This series is chock full of geeky innuendo. Come for a magical rollick through London, but stay for the myriad Harry Potter, Terry Pratchett, Dr. Who, and Tolkien references- just to name a few. Somehow, despite many references to the fantasy that came before and continues to ripple around the world of Rivers of London, this […]



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