Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A WWI novel both predictable and surprising

In Memoriam: A Novel by Alice Winn

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In Memoriam is the story of two young men, students from the prestigious (fictional) British public school Preshute, who go off to fight in the First World War. You can imagine, if you are at all familiar with WWI literature, how this tale is going to go, and yet Winn, in her first novel, manages to create a story that is faithful to the horrors of that conflict while still surprising the reader with its conclusion. Winn, herself the product of a British boarding school, […]

One Good Book About Edward VIII and One Bad Book

The Woman Before Wallis by Andrew Rose

Traitor King by Andrew Lownie

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These two books contrast very well in terms of how to do historical research and writing well versus how to do it lazily and sloppily. Andrew Lownie’s Traitor King is a great example of deep, serious research combined with strong, clear writing. Lownie makes an extremely well-sourced case for the argument that Edward VIII (David) had strong connections to the Nazis, as did Wallis, and that both of them were fully traitors to the British nation. I have never been a fan of David at […]

Two Well-Regarded Children’s Time Travel Novels

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer

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I was surprised when I visited England at what a popular genre historical children’s time travel novels were, but it’s one I enjoy so I got a couple. Both are apparently much beloved classics that must have missed me when I was a child, and this was a good chance to fill in some gaps of my children’s novel knowledge. Tom’s Midnight Garden has an intimidatingly positive pull quote by Philip Pullman on the cover: “a perfect book.” This made me internally querulous and I […]

Blackout (of a character and on the bingo card)

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

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Cbr14bingo Gaslight/Bingo Blackout  Action takes place during and in decades prior to WWI. A couple of characters struggle to believe the truth and question each other’s reliability. The Return of the Soldier is a novella that exposes the iniquities of Britain’s class system against the backdrop of World War I. It is a heartbreaking love story that focuses on the women in one soldier’s life as he convalesces following an unusual injury in France. This story features four main characters. The injured soldier, Captain Chris […]

So much left unsaid

Somewhere in France: A Novel of the Great War by Jennifer Robson

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Historical fiction is one of my “go-to’s” when I need something to read, and fiction about WWI is usually grim but compelling. Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy is brilliant, as is the classic All Quiet on the Western Front. WWI lit and films bring home the terrifying reality of trench warfare and its horrifying psychological impact on soldiers who endured it. Somewhere in France looked interesting to me because it centers on the experiences of a young woman, an ambulance driver at the front. Author Jennifer […]

“Words are our tools of resurrection.”

The Dictionary of Lost Words: A Novel by Pip Williams

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I would not have expected the story of the creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary to be a gripping topic for a novel, but I stand corrected. Pip Williams’ historical fiction encompasses not only the work of compiling the first Oxford English Dictionary but also events of historic importance that occurred during that same time period— WWI and the women’s suffrage movement. Many of the characters in this novel are real people, such as Dr. James Murray and Edith Thompson, but through the main […]



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