Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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CoffeeShopReader's Reviews:

Remember the nothing class of Home Ec? Turns out it’s got a past.

The Secret History of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger

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What do chemistry, business, politics, and social justice have in common? I’m betting that no one would have automatically though “Home Economics!” but that’s exactly what The Secret History of Home Economics show. It all started with Catharine Beech, Olivia Washington (3rd wife of Booker T.), and Ellen Swallow in the late 1800s where educational opportunities for women were few and far between. By contextualizing studying chemistry as women as a way to develop better household practices, these ladies and more like them developed one […]

The Randomness of Food Trends Past at the Antique Store

The Southern Junior League Cookbook by Ann Seranne

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I don’t especially care for antique stores, but sometimes they do have interesting books, especially things like The Southern Junior League Cookbook. This book dates to the late seventies, and has recipes from about 30 different Junior League cookbooks from North Carolina to Florida, and Georgia to Texas. A lot of it is the sort of thing you’d expect, home cookery recipes and what we might now call ‘hacks’ for most of your basic categories from Appetizers and Soup to Meat and Poultry to Grains-Beans-Peas […]

Blueberry Muffin Brains and lots of other stuff

The Body A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

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I started The Body A Guide for Occupants about a year ago; I had kind of a pattern starting the year off with a science book of some sort. This year, I guess I’m also ending with one. This book is on the one hand pretty readable since the science is explained in some detail without getting too technical; my last biology class was well over a decade ago. On the other hand, it’s also incredibly dense, making it sort of hard to read for […]

Fake Meat without the Butcher Shop

The Herbivorous Butcher by Aubry Walch, Kale Walch

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I’m really glad I didn’t fly home this year based on the travel chaos caused by the weather; I drove. What I did get stuck with though was indoors for a few days during blizzard conditions and dangerous windchills; that meant that even though I was pretty close geographically to the Herbivorous Butcher, I didn’t get to go. At least I got to stop at one of my favorite independent bookshops on the way (Boswell Books in Milwaukee WI) and got the cookbook. The Herbivorous […]

Not enough dragon

The Clockwork Ice Dragon by Liz Delton

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The Clockwork Ice Dragon is kind of a mix of “Gift of the Magi”, Polar Express, a romance, and a steampunk science adventure. The characters and the world have some good promise; the one problem really is that the novella just doesn’t have the space to really get into the details that would make the whole thing amazing. The way an inventor/engineer can really make something of themselves is to get into the union of the Magistrate of Inventors, and Aurelia has her one chance […]

Magic Murder and a Bunny Scooby Doo

Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

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An illusionist from a family of magicians under a generational curse has to come home is disgrace to her family business of building “magic” places, as in hidden staircases and doors, or basically every house or building you’ve ever seen on Scooby Doo. That’s the beginning scenario of Under Lock & Skeleton Key; Tempet Raj has a lot to deal with at the start of the story having to come home to, after an accident may have ruined her Las Vegas stage career, she needs […]



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