Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About octothorp

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I buy books faster than I can read them. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: octothorp's Quick Questions interview.)

octothorp's Reviews:

The wife stuff (bingo, true story)

The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel

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As I was mentally writing my review for this book midway through it, I realized that my only complaint was that it wasn’t a The Right Stuff -length piece. At first I was thinking how if Koppel focused only on the Mercury astronaut wives, we could have learned so much more about them in greater depth, but then we would have missed the differing responses to the Apollo One tragedies in Pat White, consumed by her husband’s loss, and Martha Chaffee’s fortitude in moving on. […]

Birthday bingo

The Night Women by Sara Blaedel

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One day I will learn that remaindered books are not always the bargain I think they are because you’re only saving money on something cheap if you actually want it. I’m not the brightest in that regard. At least this is a good selection for my birthday bingo card; the author was born 8/6 and the book prominently features an abandoned newborn. I’m not one for mysteries typically, but I had just finished Tana French’s The Trespasser and realized I was nearing the end of […]

Not stopped, just slow.

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

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Yet again I am sucked into buying a book because of its cover. But look at it, it’s so pretty! And the back cover has a blurb from Neil Gaiman! I love Gaiman so much that I don’t even mind knockoff Gaiman, so I was hopeful this would be a nice little sci-fi jaunt with the gothic twists he’s expert at. For someone who loves book covers so much, I sure don’t read the actual relevant information on them. This isn’t about time travel (well, […]

Better get used to those bar graphs, kid

Cribsheet by Emily Oster

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Apparently it’s economist week at Octothorp’s cannonball read. Emily Oster’s Expecting Better was one of those shibboleths of motherhood that I didn’t even realize existed until I had the octolet, and I fell for it hard. (I felt like I stumbled on a Stonecutters meeting when I was about to give birth. Old friends came out of the woodwork to welcome me to the club, and parents of toddlers were like vampires at the prospect of a) new parent friends and b) someone who was […]

Good bang for the buck

Payoff by Dan Ariely

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Strange to read such similar books back to back, but doing so highlights how much better Payoff is than the similar Drive I reviewed in my last CBR post. Both are short explorations of what motivates people, and how the simple answer (money) is often not the correct one. Payoff is even shorter than Drive was, having stemmed from a TED talk, but it feels more fully realized than the longer book as Ariely explores the same topic more thoroughly. He’s an engaging writer, and […]

Stalled

Drive by Daniel Pink

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I like economics books in the “economics is the study of human behavior” vein as opposed to the “effect of capital gains tax on gross domestic product” or the like (proven by that second example making no sense whatsoever), so I sometimes end up in the business section of the bookstore, which is dangerous. I took a few business classes in college and the books were written for people who don’t read.  I’ve read picture books to my toddler that were more complex. It’s sometimes […]



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