Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Holmes in 1942

A Study in Crimson by Robert J. Harris

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Robert J. Harris’ A Study in Crimson was inspired by the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies. It moves the famous detective from Victorian England to World War II-era England. The time shift of Holmes, Watson, et al. provides a nice shift in perspective and setting. Holmes and Watson were both involved in The Great War, and that experience shaped their youth and their lives. Watson is more or less the competent and curious doctor he always is, just older. He is more upbeat than a […]

Dead men might not tell tales, but they can fight Captain America

Captain America: The Ghost Army by Alan Gratz

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When you are tired and really have no brain power, but you want to read, what do you do? I tend to pick up what looks like an easy graphic novel or picture book. This time I picked up a what looked like an easy graphic novel. And while there was not a lot of “Deep Thoughts” to Captain America: The Ghost Army, it was not as “fluffy” as I thought. But then again, I should have realized that Alan Gratz would not write “fluffy […]

Lilly Renee fought Nazi’s with her pen

Lily Renee, Escape Artist: From Holocaust Survivors to Comic Book Pioneer by Trina Robbins

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A while ago, I think I saw this book on a list of World War two books. Or maybe it was books about women. At the time it did not seem interesting to me, so I quickly forgot it. Later I came across from it and for some reason was compelled to do an interlibrary loan request for it. I know I was not sure what it was about (okay, so the title should have given me a clue, but even then, nope. Nothing. I […]

True life is often much more interesting than fiction

The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb by Sam Kean

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In the author’s note to The Bastard Brigade, Sam Kean responds to the question, why has he never written a book about physics before? His previous books (which are all fabulous and highly recommended by me) focus on genetics, chemistry, neuroscience, and the atmosphere, even though the author studied physics in college. He explains, “What I really love doing is telling stories, and when I’m planning a book, I look for rip-roarin’ stories first and foremost. I want heroes and villains, conflict and drama, plot twists […]

January 2022 Leftovers

Hit Parade by Lawrence Block

Sex Criminals, Volume 1: One Weird Trick by Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky

Devils In Exile by Chuck Hogan

Ex Machina, The Deluxe Edition: Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

Munich by Robert Harris

Shella by Andrew Vachss

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler

The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz

No One Will Miss Her by Kat Rosenfeld

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

The Second Sleep by Robert Harris

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My resolution for Cannonball Read in 2022 is to only write reviews where I feel like I have much to say and then dump the others in a singular post at the end of the month to track how much I’ve read. This’ll spare me from writing 250+ words about books that I can’t even think of a hundred for. So… Hit Parade **** I enjoy these books and while this is the one I maybe enjoyed the least (did EVERY story need cutaway conversations with […]

An Informative Memoir by the King of Clowns

Grock: King of Clowns by Grock

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This was a pleasant read and Grock was a cheerful raconteur of his interesting life story. Grock was one of the most famous performers of his day, but as he himself writes, “Clowns too are soon forgotten.” I think the fact that clowning is an art best experienced live, combined with it not usually being recorded for posterity, leads to the progressive cultural memory loss of people like Grock, except by those with an intense knowledge of the field (there are videos of him that […]



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