Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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About Ellesfena

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I mostly read nonfiction (especially public health-related), mysteries, and fantasy. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Ellesfena's Quick Questions interview.)

Ellesfena's Reviews:

I’d go the whole wide world just to find her

May 11, 2016 by Ellesfena 6 Comments

This is a fantastic book. I know, I’m late to the game on this one, and I’m not sure why it took me so long to get to it. The premise bummed me out, a little. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is three stories. First, it’s the life story of Henrietta Lacks, a woman who died of cancer at age 31 and whose cells were cultured for use in tissue research. Next, it’s the story of what happened to those cells, whose remarkable ability […]

Filed Under: Health, Non-Fiction Tagged With: hela, henrietta lacks, public health, tissue research

Ellesfena's CBR8 Review No:24 · Genres: Health, Non-Fiction · Tags: hela, henrietta lacks, public health, tissue research ·
Rating:
· 6 Comments

Ugly Things in the Darkness, Worse Things in Store

April 29, 2016 by Ellesfena 2 Comments

This is the third entry in the Cormoran Strike series, and by far my least favorite. It’s gory and disgusting and way too scary for a fraidy-cat like me. That said, I still enjoyed parts of it and I’ll continue to read any other books that come out in this series, for two reasons: Robin Ellacott and Cormoran Strike. The private detective and his assistant are fantastic characters and I love reading about them and their relationship. I don’t, however, like reading about a serial […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery Tagged With: cormoran strike, J.K. Rowling, JK Rowling, mystery

Ellesfena's CBR8 Review No:23 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery · Tags: cormoran strike, J.K. Rowling, JK Rowling, mystery ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments

America, You Great Unfinished Symphony

April 24, 2016 by Ellesfena Leave a Comment

Losing Our Way is just about the saddest book I’ve ever read. It took me well over a month to read it, even though it’s great, because I had to keep stopping so I wouldn’t sink into a terrible depression. Losing Our Way is basically the story of everything that’s wrong with the United States today, from our failing infrastructure, to struggling schools, to wage stagnation and income inequality, to endless wars in the Middle East. Bob Herbert knows his stuff, and he doesn’t pull […]

Filed Under: Non-Fiction Tagged With: Education, infrastructure, military, Non-Fiction, United States

Ellesfena's CBR8 Review No:22 · Genres: Non-Fiction · Tags: Education, infrastructure, military, Non-Fiction, United States ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

You’ll Need a Strong Stomach for This One

April 24, 2016 by Ellesfena Leave a Comment

I enjoyed the first book in the Cormoran Strike series quite a bit, so I picked up the second one, The Silkworm, basically as soon as I finished the first. This one was a little disappointing. In The Silkworm, private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin are investigating the disappearance of an author. It quickly turns grisly as they discover he had an unpublished manuscript (titled Bombyx Mori, Latin for silkworm) that contained grotesque caricatures of several people in his life, and that those caricatures were […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery Tagged With: cormoran strike, J.K. Rowling, JK Rowling, mystery

Ellesfena's CBR8 Review No:21 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery · Tags: cormoran strike, J.K. Rowling, JK Rowling, mystery ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Just one more thing. . .

April 21, 2016 by Ellesfena Leave a Comment

This is the first book in the Cormoran Strike mystery series, written by J.K. Rowling under a pen name. It’s a fairly standard plot (crusty, genius detective and spunky assistant investigate a suicide that may actually have been a murder), but I really enjoyed it. I’ve always been a  fan of J.K. Rowling’s style of writing–flowy, lots of adjectives and humor, makes you feel like you’re right there in the room. While The Cuckoo’s Calling is nowhere near as inventive or delightful as the Harry […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery Tagged With: cormoran strike, J.K. Rowling, JK Rowling, mystery

Ellesfena's CBR8 Review No:20 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery · Tags: cormoran strike, J.K. Rowling, JK Rowling, mystery ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Behold the Hamiltome

April 17, 2016 by Ellesfena 8 Comments

I’m a huge fan of all things Hamilton and pre-ordered this book the second I found out about it. I’ve listened to the soundtrack approximately 18,500 times, watched every #Ham4Ham I can find on YouTube (and every other tangentially related video on there), and am still harboring a little resentment toward Genevieve Burgess for not writing about the Hamilton bootleg until it had been taken down. There’s not much for me to say about this book, other than I loved it. Originally I ordered it because I was eager to see the […]

Filed Under: Non-Fiction Tagged With: broadway, hamilton, hip-hop, musical theater, Non-Fiction

Ellesfena's CBR8 Review No:19 · Genres: Non-Fiction · Tags: broadway, hamilton, hip-hop, musical theater, Non-Fiction ·
Rating:
· 8 Comments
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