Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About blauracke

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Loves books. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: blauracke's Quick Questions interview.)

blauracke's Reviews:

“… the war had been on for a long time now, and I could not even remember a time when the war had not been on.”

Fly Away Home by Christine Nöstlinger

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This book follows a 9-year-old girl living in Vienna with her family during the last days of WWII. Bombs are raining down on the city, food and other necessities are hard to find, and people are afraid of the approaching Russian army. This is pretty much an autobiographical account by Nöstlinger who was one of the most beloved and acclaimed authors of children’s and young adult’s books in Austria. This is, of course, a heavy subject to tackle in a children’s book, but Nöstlinger manages […]

The Big Nothing

The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon

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A university student who blames herself for her mother’s death becomes more and more involved in a dangerous cult’s activities that begin to veer ever closer towards terrorism. There are some big topics being tackled here, be it fanaticism, cults, the loss of faith, or the search for some greater purpose. Not one of those topics, however, is being handled with the care and precision they warrant, on the contrary, everything is just mixed together and treated in the most superficial way. The characters have […]

Your Fame Will Live, Your Glory Sung

Gilgamesh Retold by Jenny Lewis

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This is a retelling of the 4,000-year-old Epic of Gilgamesh, in which Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, abuses his power and insults the gods. The punishment he receives for his hubris subsequently leads him on a quest for immortality. I discovered this book by chance and bought it more or less on a whim, and wow, what a find. I only seldom read poetry, but this one captivated me from the start. The plot is pretty simple and straightforward, but it is all imbued with so […]

The Most Dangerous Worldview Is the Worldview of Those Who Have Not Viewed the World.

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf

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Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was one of the last polymaths, a brilliant scientist and an awe-inspiring explorer, who travelled extensively in the Americas while collecting scientific data in every way then known to man. The books he published afterwards about his journey and his research became hugely popular and made him the greatest scientist of his time. Although his liberal worldview was not popular with many people on whom he relied to financially or politically support him and his endeavours, he was a lifelong abolitionist […]

A Man of Hubris

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

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I have seen a few of the movie adaptations of Frankenstein but somehow I never got around to reading the book. I knew that it was supposed to be rather different and much more sophisticated than a simple horror story, and I was really excited to finally read it, but I have to admit I’m sorely disappointed after finishing it, and a big part of this is the main protagonist. Victor Frankenstein has to be one of the most pathetic and self-obsessed idiots ever created […]

Now I Am Medea; My Wit Has Grown Through Suffering.

Medea by Christa Wolf

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This is a retelling of the myth of Medea, with her depiction differing greatly from most others, in that she is not a jealous mad woman that does not even shrink back from killing her own children to get revenge, but a proud outsider who gets caught up in a political battle and is made the scapegoat for any evil that befalls the city of Corinth. In my last year of secondary school, I read this as one of a few adaptations of the myth […]



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