Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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My care is like my shadow in the sun, Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it, Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done.” ― Elizabeth I

How to Be a Tudor: A Dawn to Dusk Guide to Tudor Life by Ruth Goodman

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This is a day to day, dawn to dusk guide to Tudor life that barely touches on plague, and doesn’t at all touch on the dangers one faced during the yo-yo religious times, or Scotland trying to (frequently) invade Northern England; in fact, she barely touches on religion at all (while bringing it up almost every chapter; the largest being the one on sex). Yet Protestantism isn’t a real religion, the poor are poor, yet can afford vast amounts of imported goods for their culinary […]

“my life will change utterly since my sinful eyes saw this noble land so much admired.”

Tombland: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery by C.J. Sansom

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Never in England were there so many gentlemen and so little gentleness. After two years working for Elizabeth on legal land matters, Matthew Shardlake is summoned in front of her. Edith Boleyn, a wife of a distant relation has been recently murdered, and her husband, John Boleyn, is on trial for it. As Elizabeth is fiercely protective of any relation of hers due to being unable to save her mother (seriously, I get the feeling from this book that if Elizabeth thought it would have […]

“Politics is like dice: the better the player, the worse the man”

Heartstone: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery by C.J. Sansom

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It’s 1545 and Henry VII has gotten England into a war with France; seeing as it’s Tudor-Era England, war with France, Spain, Scotland, or England itself is not really that surprising. It looks like the French will land their invasion force at Portsmouth. Too bad that Portsmouth is around the area Matthew Shardlake is being sent by his patron, Queen Catherine Parr. A servant in Parr’s former household has come to the Queen for assistance; the servant’s son has allegedly killed himself after swearing out […]

“Have you ever thought what a God would be like who actually ordained and executed the cruelty that is in [the biblical Book of Revelation]? A holocaust of mankind. Yet so many of these Bible-men accept the idea without a second thought.”

Revelation by C.J. Sansom

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This was probably the weirdest (and creepiest) book in the series so far. The motivation behind the murders is unfortunately still around today, and I enjoyed the Tudor take on the movie Seven (though having never seen the movie, I am just guessing at that comparison). I also appreciated how well-researched the book is, and how realistically all the characters are written; though Shardlake and his “crush on a woman who is going to kick him in the teeth” per book is starting to get […]

“How easy it is to leave things undone until they are too late.”

Sovereign: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery by C.J. Sansom

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In my love affair for both Historical Murder Mysteries and series whose books get progressively more brick-like the longer they go on, I tackled Sovereign, the third in the Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery series. And I don’t really regret that I did. Set this time in York during the great Progress Henry VIII took after the near civil war of 1541, York truly comes alive, with the Minster and St. Mary’s Church shown particular love. Sansom paints a pretty good picture of how as much […]

To Vigil the Ante

Even the Wicked by Lawrence Block

Revelation by CJ Sansom

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Just as with Trump’s election last month dovetailing into subjects I read, the recent shooting death of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson by a vigilante killer coincided with me reading two consecutive books on vigilante justice. Going to review both vis-a-vis how they speak to the moment. Even the Wicked Growing up, vigilante justice was always right wing coded. Dirty Harry. Death Wish. I still remember the popular “Beer For My Horses” song in which Willie Nelson and Toby Keith talk about public hangings and “putting […]



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