Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Keeping Hope in the Jungle

Sisters Under the Rising Sun by Heather Morris

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The passengers of the Vyner Brooke are pitched from the frying pan to the fire when the ship upon which they have been fleeing the Japanese invasion of Singapore is sunk off the shores of Indonesia. The women and children, musician Norah Chambers and nurse Nesta James among them, must survive in jungle camps until the end of the war. I am continuing my informal journey through the Pacific theatre of World War 2 with Sisters Under the Rising Sun, which chronicles the lives of a […]

The Nazi Handmaid’s Tale

Widowland by C.J. Carey

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In a 1953 England under the control of German forces, life is good for Rose Ransom, a member of the privileged Geli class – or at least as good as life can be for a woman in the oppressive regime. But when she is given the task of infiltrating Widowland in search of possible subversives, she comes to learn she might have more power than she always thought. The premise of this book caught my eye immediately. I haven’t really read alternate history books before, […]

A Mysterious Introduction to Agatha Christie

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

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Having never read an Agagtha Christie book before, I decided it was only appropriate to begin with her first Poirot mystery, rather than a more well known title like Murder on the Orient Express. The reader follows narrator Arthur Hastings, a soldier recently released on sick leave from the Western Front during WW2. He runs into an old friend, John Cavendish, who invites him to stay at his families sprawling estate, Styles Court. There, Hastings is reintroduced to several characters: Emily Inglethorp, John’s stepmother Mary […]

“No one survives a war’s front lines without ghosts clinging to them.”

Angels of the Pacific by Elise Hooper

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CBR 15 Bingo – Hold Steady: To survive the war, Tess and Flor have to make a stand and hold steady in their efforts to undermine the Japanese occupiers. After Japan invades and occupies the Philippines during WW2, American nurse Tess and Filipino university student Flor must do whatever they can to survive and help those around them. In my ongoing quest to find WW2 historical novels which don’t simply rehash the experience of the London Blitz or the French resistance, I have looked to the […]

Bear arms

Brothers In Arms: A True World War II Story of Wojtek the Bear and the Soldiers Who Loved Him by Susan Hood

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We all know about Winnie the Pooh and what they did for the Canadian army and British literature. But did you know the Polish army had Wojtek the Bear (or Private Wojtek Mis aka: Private Wojtek Teddy Bear)? A young bear cub was purchased by a soldier so a woman named Irena (Inka) Bokiewicz could care for it. However, she quickly learned it would become 500 pounds and even at the small size he was when found, he was already causing too much trouble. He […]

Finding family

On the Move: Home Is Where You Find It by Michael Rosen

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A rating of 3 makes this seem like it On the Move: Home Is Where You Find It is not a good book/collection. However, this rating is because of the images of Quentin Blake, which I am not a fan of. However, they are perfect for the atmosphere of the writing (raw, desolate, almost hopeless) and since t there are no half points, this is a 3.5 lower 4. The idea of migration, refugees, immigrants, all come together while we follow Michael Rosen finding out about […]



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