Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A short but interesting story

Signal Moon by Kate Quinn

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I think this book was a short that fulfilled a Kindle reading challenge accomplishment, so it was kind of a random pick. I didn’t know anything about the interception and decryption of enemy naval communications. I’m not that into history, so that isn’t a surprise. This story centers around a woman named Lily who works in Bletchley Park in 1943 decrypting enemy communications. She scans through radio transmissions and passes on what she hears to her superiors. If there’s anything helpful or actionable, they can […]

History is Made by Persistence and Knowing the Right People

A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton & the Civil War by Stephen B. Oates

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Clara Barton is one of those historical figures that sits as a vaguely understood fact in my mind. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about her existence, but beyond being the founder of the American Red Cross, she never bore much significance to me. But then I wrote a little article about visiting small historical sites and the “Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office” came up in my search. A cursory perusal of the website had me fascinated, and I needed to know […]

Stunning debut novel inspired by Chinese mythology

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

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BINGO – SNAKE Secrets and hidden identities abound in this debut novel from Sue Lynn Tan. Xingyin is the titular daughter of the moon goddess, Chang’e, but she shouldn’t be alive. Her mother has hidden her existence from the Emperor and Empress of the Immortal Realm in order to keep her safe from danger and harm. For many years, Chang’e and Xingyin lived peacefully with their attendant on the moon in exile. But when Xingyin accidentally alerts the rulers of the Immortal Realm to her […]

Soldier For Fortune

Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler and the Making and Breaking of the American Empire by Jonathan M. Katz

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An excellent read and an infuriating read. Worth all five stars. And like Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction and Ackerman’s Reign of Terror, you’re guaranteed to be peeved on every page. I knew the United States had a colonizing history dating back, well really to its foundation through the US-Mexican War of the 1840s, but more specifically from the end of the 19th century onwards. I knew that we captured many islands in the Caribbean and Pacific respectively, even if I didn’t know the hows-and-whys. Jonathan M. Katz does […]

There’s No End Like a Sanderson End

The Hero of Ages by Bandon Sanderson

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The more Sanderson I read, the more I feel like his books are really just love letters to his fans. His author notes are always so personal, and its clear that he takes his fans seriously and thinks about them as he’s writing. In this last installment of the Mistborn trilogy, Sanderson’s goal was to write an ending of a series that both satisfied and concluded without rushing or shoehorning. He took all the things he hated about series that ended disappointedly and made sure he […]

James Ellroy meets the War on Terror in the search for Honor and Soul

Pukhtu Primo by DOA

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In the fast-paced depiction of the war in Afghanistan at the end of 2000s, French author DOA depicts the search for the Afghan soul, the “Pukthu” – the code of honor and justice, that his characters pursue in vain. Retired warlords, rogue mercenaries, lost soldiers and tired journalists look for meaning and truth in a chaotic world that does not make sense anymore. Though well researched and entertaining, the book’s characters feel somehow a bit unoriginal. A sense of deja-vue echoes through the narrative of […]



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