Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Don’t Let Your Midlife Crisis Ruin Your Children’s Lives

Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood

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When Suzanne’s parents tell her that their family is going to live on a boat and sail around the world, they sell it to her and everyone as the adventure of a lifetime. But the reality of it is much more grim, with constant instability and little care for the children’s education or futures. Talk about making your midlife crisis your children’s problem! Having seen an uptick of chatter online about parents gaming the homeschooling system to let their kids run wild, it was interesting […]

The Past is a Different Country

Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age by Reid Mitenbuler

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Peter Freuchen first rose to prominence as an Arctic explorer in the early twentieth century, but during his long adventurous life he wore many other hats, becoming a best-selling author, working in Hollywood, and being imprisoned in a Nazi prison camp for being a member of the resistance. I like exploration stories. They introduce you to an old world that no longer exists, they have the kinds of details that boggle the mind, and are usually populated with exactly the eccentric kinds of people you’d […]

Death and Life and Wheelies

Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon

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During the 2020 COVID quarantine period, my wife and I tried to mentally escape our confinement by watching travel shows. Our favorites were (1) Travel Man, hosted by Richard Ayoade and (2) Long Way motorcycle journey series, hosted by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman (yes, Ewan McGregor). Travel Man focuses on many of travel’s fun social/cultural aspects. In contrast, the Long Way motorcycle series focuses more on the wandering/open/adventure aspects. In one of the Long Way episodes, hosts Ewan and Charley are very excited to […]

Ah, to be young and have much money…

And I'd Do it Again by Aimee Crocker

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CBR 15 Bingo – Asia/Oceania: Aimee was fascinated by the people and cultures of Asia from when she was young, and the majority of the adventures she recounts take place in various countries there. Edwardian heiress Aimee Crocker, after the failure of her first marriage, sets off multiple years-long journeys around the world for the sheer joy of it, picking up along the way many lovers, children, pearls and snakes. I had never heard of Aimee Crocker until I read 19th Century Female Explorers and had […]

Around the world in 72 days – and more than that

19th Century Female Explorers by Caroline Roope

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CBR 15 Bingo – In the Wild: The women of this book ventured into the wild spaces of pretty much very continent at some point or another. In the heyday of European colonialism, social mores were constrained for women, who were expected to stay domestic and tend hearth and home. Despite this, many European women managed to go traveling around the world on just as exciting adventures as their males counterparts did, and often recorded what they saw with clearer eyes as well. Truth is […]

‘No airport was an island either.’

Airport by Arthur Hailey

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CBR 15 Bingo – Nostalgia: This book is set in the glamorous heyday of air travel (and as I am currently in hour three of a ten hour layover in Munich, I can assure you I am feeling very nostalgic.) Over the course of seven hours, Lincoln Airport must go through a snowstorm, a protest, and the return of an airplane that’s had a hole blasted in its side. I love stories about airports and airplanes. They’re exciting to me because they are emblematic of adventure – […]



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