Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Werewolves live among us

Red Moon by Benjamin Percy

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Ugh.  OK.  This one was a little rough.  It was such a good concept, but it was sooooo slow.  I think the audiobook was about 20-21 hours.  It probably could’ve been 10 and it would’ve been better. The premise is that some people in the world are werewolves.  They were “infected” with a prion originated in wolves.  I nerdily enjoyed the backstory of the disease.  I could’ve listened to more about that! It starts out strong too.  Patrick Gamble is on a plane flying to […]

Beautiful and Tragic

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

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I chose to read this book because I saw it on the to-read list of a baseball player I really like, Sean Doolittle.  Doolittle is a very good player and someone who is known for being an even better person.  He is also considered one of the most, let’s say intellectual, players in baseball and maybe sports as a whole.  He attended the University of Virginia, in my home state, so I’ve always felt an affinity for Doolittle.  He posted a picture of his current […]

A wholly satisfying ending to a great fantasy trilogy

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

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Spoiler warning! This is the third and final volume in the trilogy, and the action starts immediately after the second book. This is not the place to start. If you are not caught up, drop everything and start from the beginning with The Bear and the Nightingale.  Vasilisa “Vasya” Petrovna managed to defeat one enemy, but at a great cost. Releasing the legendary firebird has caused much of Moscow to catch fire and the citizens, spurred on by the vengeful and jealous Father Konstantin are looking for […]

Don’t Say We Didn’t Try

Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America's Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe by Rebecca Erbelding

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Due to extensive documentation in all manner of media, World War II is an enduring object of fascination. Just when we think we’ve heard everything, the inexhaustible well comes up with something new. In my favored stories of resistance, espionage, politicking, and propaganda, the Holocaust—Nazi Germany’s systematic genocide of Jews in occupied Europe—is impossible to avoid. (Yes, other minority groups were targeted, too. This book is not about them.) It’s a favorite pastime among WWII buffs to finger people, besides the Germans, who ought to […]

The whole experience of being hit by a bullet is very interesting.

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

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Orwell is a man of strong convictions. He believes so passionately in the fight against fascism that in 1936 he travels to Barcelona to fight in the revolution. Homage to Catalonia is a detailed account of the politics surrounding the revolution, a fervent defense of the working class and a witness of war from the trenches. “All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.” I will be honest and say that the politics interested me […]

WTF Indeed

The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Kim Barker

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A couple of years ago, a movie came and went starring Tina Fey called Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the military call letters for WTF. I didn’t even remember the movie until I went looking for reviews for The Taliban Shuffle after I’d read it. I sometimes like to read reviews after I’ve finished a book, just to see if my thinking is in line with the critics’. One thing I discovered while doing so this time, apart from the fact that the book was made in […]



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