Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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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 share the blame for the most famous war crimes of all time. Maybe the worst […]

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2/10/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:11 |

Accessible, exciting historical fiction for the tween set

Lifeboat 12 by Susan Hood

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Almost accidentally, author Susan Hood stumbled upon a historical event that has gone mostly overlooked and it is the basis of her exciting middle grade novel Lifeboat 12.  The book is told in verse format by narrator and actual survivor Ken Sparks, who is thirteen years of age right before London is destroyed in the Blitz. His life in London is troubled by things large in scope (like running to bomb shelters nightly when the alarms go off and living off rations and hand-me-downs) and intimate (feeling slighted by his stepmother who dotes on his half-sister and only seems disappointed […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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1/24/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:6 |

an exercise in lying to liars

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

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What began as a slow and cold (le Carré-esque) waiting game grew into a white hot flash of deceit, anxiety, and dangerous thrills. I cannot claim to know the full horrors and trials of World War II- nor can I draw a true comparison between that dark time and the present, but the world of this book is a different world from our current version. One constant remains: the truth is subjective. In 1940 a young woman is recruited into the fold of MI5. Europe is falling, Britain is in peril, and…notes need typing. I found myself wrapped up in […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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1/11/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:2 |

you will falsely remember being told about Melmoth by your grandmother’s mother when you were very small

Melmoth by Sarah Perry

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There is something immediately nauseating – hear me out- about this book. You can be nauseous when you feel ill, when you ride a roller coaster, when you are nervous, or when you eat too many sweets. There is a feeling of hopeful dread that climbs over you (and all of the characters within) before you have finished reading the first page. There is a feeling that you have been here – in a cafe in Prague, under an overpass in Manila, in a field on a river on the edges of Bohemia- and that you have heard these stories […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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1/2/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:1 |

A Dual Biography that works

Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks

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I read Churchill and Orwell because I am a fan of the author, Thomas E. Ricks.  Ricks is best known as a military historian who wrote Fiasco and The Generals, both of which I highly recommend.  This book is a bit of a departure for Ricks but the topic seemed interesting.  Churchill and Orwell is a dual biography of two British men who had similarly parallel lives during WWII-era Great Britain.  I was surprised to find how much the two men had in common, especially considering how different they were.   Churchill and Orwell is not a comprehensive dual biography. […]

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9/5/2018 's CBR10 Review No:36 |

Some People Fight Injustice. Some People Perpetrate It.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

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Best for: Those looking for a bit of inspiration in tough times; those who want to learn more about a group of WWII women (the Rabbits) who haven’t received a lot of coverage. In a nutshell: Three women’s lives intertwine – Caroline, a retired US Broadway star who volunteers at the French Consulate in NYC, Kasia, a Polish teen who is just starting to assist the resistance, and Herta, a German Doctor who experiments on young girls in a concentration camp. Worth quoting: “To make things worse, Washington tightened visa restrictions, and it became almost impossible to enter the United […]

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6/13/2018 's CBR10 Review No:35 |

Army Chief of Staff Reading List #13

The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (World War II Liberation Trilogy #3) by Rick Atkinson

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The Guns at Last Light is the finale of the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson, the first of which, An Army at Dawn, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2003.  The series encompasses the history of the United States activity in the European theater of World War II.  An Army at Dawn is about the U.S. Military during the North Africa campaign.  Book two, The Day of Battle, is about the the war in Italy and the Mediterranean; it is subtitled, The War in Sicily and Italy.  Finally. The Guns at Last Light begins at D-Day and continues through […]

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5/22/2018 's CBR10 Review No:24 |

Stick With This One, It’s Worth It

Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thomson

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This is my first ever experience reading a book before print, and it took a little while for me to get into this one, but once I was in, the payoff was worth it. Never Anyone But You follows Suzanne and Claude (Luci) from falling in love as teenagers in the early 1900s through the many different Paris art movements post World War I, onto their Nazi resistance during World War II, and their final years on the small isle of Jersey. In truth, the first 100 pages of this book were a little rough to find my footing in, and […]

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4/26/2018 's CBR10 Review No:9 |


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