Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Spies Alive

The Torqued Man by Peter Mann

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The Torqued Man is a very difficult novel to pull off. It has to accurately replicate the atmosphere of Nazi Germany in World War II, introduce two queer heroes enmeshed with each other without the Tragic Homosexual trope, present a novel-within-the-novel that tweaks the story without it losing momentum. become a high wire spy tale in the tradition of Furst and LeCarré, and do all of this in a way that entertains while seamlessly blending multiple genres. And man oh man does Peter Mann do it. […]

Pure-blooded animals for the Aryan to kill? Let’s get right on that.

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

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During the late 1930s, Antonina and Jan Źabiński, along with their young son Ryś, were leading an idyllic life as caretakers of a small zoo, set in a parklike setting on the bank of the Vistula River in the Old Town of Warsaw, Poland.  Antonina had a special gift for dealing with animals in need, and their villa, on the zoo grounds, was full of animals that need a bit of extra help, including Ryś’ pet badger, and was fondly known as “The House Under […]

Slow but informative history

Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel

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The second of my trio of books this year related to WWII (All The Light We Cannot See and Exodus), this is also the only non-fiction one.  Monuments tells the story of the group of soldiers in WWII who were part of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFAA) section. This group was underfunded, unrecognized and very small (at its largest, after the war, it numbered 350 people), yet responsible for saving most of western Europe’s art. The action opens by introducing us to the […]

A little bowl, a big message

A Bowl Full of Peace: A True Story by Caren Stelson

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A Bowl Full of Peace: A True Story is a book that I can tell you: it is a beautiful book about survival, family, and beauty within the ugliness of war. A family heirloom survived the bombing of Nagasaki, but some of the family did not. This based on a true story testament to the why we should never let this happen again. Lovely illustrations accent and compliment the text. I can say that it is written by Caren Stelson and those lovely illustrations are […]

We’re all so f*cked

The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig

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It took me ages to finish this book. Not because I had troubles reading it, the language in this is in fact incredibly fluid, I would even say that German prose hardly gets better than this. It took me so long because the dawning realisation that people don’t change, they don’t ever change, is a lot to bear. The sheer relatability of this upset me to the core and it should reach so many more people. The World of Yesterday is the memoir of Stefan […]

A Kennedy I know little about.

The Kennedy Debutante by Kerri Maher

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“If you didn’t know already that Kathleen’s a fighter,” said Rose, her normally shrill voice unusually smooth and low, “then you haven’t been paying attention.” Growing up as a Kennedy woman comes with a specific set of rules. The first being: marry a good Catholic boy from a notable family. The second being: Once you’re married, your only jobs are to have children and keep a full social calendar. Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy is aware of what is expected of her as she is presented to […]



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