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:

A lock for every key, even if some are weird and corkscrew shaped (CBR12Bingo 2: Orange

Nature's Nether Regions by Menno Schilthuizen

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The jargon problem we talked about in my review of the last book? Yeah, it’s in evidence here. I feel bad, because Schilthuizen very obviously tries hard to avoid it, naming the nether regions in question as closely as he can to their human equivalent, but I got lost in all the pedipalps and ovipositors and couldn’t make heads or tails of much of the book (the difference between heads and tails being kind of important when talking about sexual reproduction). This was dry (again, […]

First (second) Bingo! (CBR12Bingo 2: Red)

The Physics of Everyday Things by James Kakalios

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Due to the Octolet’s obsession with Calvin and Hobbes (raised him right!), I’ve been thinking of a ton of things in terms of Bill Watterson strips. There’s one where Calvin asks his dad where wind comes from, and his dad says “from trees sneezing” which Calvin finds questionable, so his dad explains “no, but the truth is much more complicated.” The last panel finds Calvin telling Hobbes “boy, the trees are really sneezing today.” The challenge in a book like this that explains the scientific […]

I still miss you, Tony (CBR12Bingo 2: shelfie)

Bone in the Throat by Anthony Bourdain

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I love books about cooking, the science behind making food, and the nitty gritty of the restaurant, farming, and food complex industries. So imagine my delight when I saw an Anthony Bourdain book I hadn’t heard about, much less read. I loved The Nasty Bits, I’ve followed Bourdain since Kitchen Confidential, his take no prisoners style and strong opinions never made him fall prey to the elitism of others in the chef cult of personality (looking your way, Michael Pollan). I couldn’t wait to read […]

Fitting category (CBR12Bingo 2: Repeat – Money)

The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket

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You guys, even I’m getting tired of my Series of Unfortunate Events reviews. I don’t think there’s too much left to say about the books as they are very much all of a kind, and unlike the wonderful, authorless Harry Potter books, they don’t increase in complexity or thematic depth with their readers. It’s the same damn book over again: Baudelaire orphans meet their new home and a new variety of inept adult, find Count Olaf behind a disguise along with one or more of […]

What do you tell your children? (CBR12Bingo: Uncannon)

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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There’s a line from Lindy West’s Shrill that really resonated with me, in her case about her disillusionment with comedy, “Feminism is really just the long slow realization that the things you love hate you.”  There’s truth to that for pretty much any intersectional thinking, and Between the World and Me is basically Ta-Nehisi Coates speaking directly to his teenage son about his long slow realization that the same is true of anti-racism.  His long, slow realization is that the Dream (capitalization his) of white […]

Sell crazy somewhere else, we’re all stocked up here. (CBR12Bingo: Happy)

Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly

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I was at Goodwill buying a few books that seemed like a good enough deal for a dollar (including the just-reviewed Flame Alphabet, which … no. The cover was pretty though!) and at the last second I threw this one on the pile. My love of behavioral economics is well known, it was a fairly slim volume, and I particularly love learning the reasons why people often behave irrationally. Sure, let’s figure out why people resist happiness! …They turn away from God. *Flips book over, […]



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