Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Twice (or More) in a Lifetime

Recursion by Blake Crouch

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CBR11Bingo: Science! You ever read a book that feels just a little too much like a treatment for a film script? In Blake Crouch’s Recursion, the focus is almost entirely on its high-concept, easy to pitch plot. The characters are briefly sketched to the point where it’s easy to imagine almost any two actors playing the main roles in an adaptation. The writing is competent but unchallenging, making for a quick read without much in the way of metaphor. Maybe that’s too critical. After all, […]

Drier than a popcorn fart in the desert

The Science of Leadership by Julian Barling

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If you are looking for some light reading to put you to sleep, or wondering what a dry day in the Sahara would feel like in print form, this book is for you.  Whew, am I parched.  I received this book for free from the author when he presented at a professional women’s event I attended about 4 years ago.  I remember his presentation being largely uneventful- not exciting but no more boring than many other professional talks.  Then, because I was working at a […]

A kissing book with SCIENCE!

The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian

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4.5 stars #CBR11 Bingo: Science! One of the protagonists is a scientist and his scientific experiments plays an important part throughout the story. Official book description: Lawrence Browne, the Earl of Radnor, is mad. At least, that’s what he and most of the village believes. A brilliant scientist, he hides himself away in his family’s crumbling estate, unwilling to venture into the outside world. When an annoyingly handsome man arrives at Penkellis, claiming to be Lawrence’s new secretary, his carefully planned world is turned upside down. […]

She blinded me with science

Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains by Helen Thomson

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My Science pick for Bingo could easily be my I Love It selection, because behavioral science in all its forms is my jam. I think I’ve included the line “I was hoping for an Oliver Sacks version of topic X” in approximately half of my non fiction reviews and each time been disappointed, but this more or less hit the mark.  I mean, I love you Helen Thomson, but you’re not quite Oliver Sacks, but getting as close as you did to filling his shoes […]

Provocative, uneven collection of essays (Bingo!)

The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist by Richard P. Feynman

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Cbr11bingo Science. BINGO! These essays are by turns provocative and exasperating. Richard P. Feynman, who died in 1988, was a brilliant physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1965. He also was part of the Manhattan Project, was a distinguished lecturer at Cal Tech, and served as a member of the Rogers Commission which investigated the Challenger disaster. The Meaning of It All is a short collection of three lectures that Feynman gave in 1963. In these lectures his goal was to discuss the impact […]

Rich people are still the worst

The Dispatcher by John Scalzi

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CBR11 Bingo Square- Science! The Dispatcher by John Scalzi was created as an audio book narrated by Zachary Quinto, and was a free monthly download for subscribers. I’ve only read one other Scalzi (I really should fix that) but this main character, Tony Valdez, is a similar type of main character, working in a morally gray area and not feeling that bad about it. In his world, most people cannot be murdered, they wake up in their beds, naked and with the clock starting again. […]



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