Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About TheShitWizard

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Drinking tea, reading books, petting cats. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: TheShitWizard's Quick Questions interview.)

TheShitWizard's Reviews:

A lovely escape from the real world

Reflections (Indexing #2) by Seanan McGuire

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I’ve been struggling to read much this year, particularly as I’d been picking quite weighty books to plough through, so I decided it was time for some brain candy. I’ve been loving Seanan McGuire for a while now, so while waiting to get my hands on more of the Toby Daye series (the UK kindle release dates would appear to be years behind everywhere else) I decided to visit her Indexing world again. For those who are new to Indexing, we follow a team from […]

“They began their lives in deficit. Not only were most of them born into working-class families, but they were born female. Before they had even spoken their first words they were regarded as less important than their brothers and more of a burden in the world than their wealthier female counterparts. Their worth was compromised before they had even attempted to prove it.”

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

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People have been fascinated by Jack the Ripper for over a century now, and we’ve long come to accept as fact certain things about the case – more specifically, we all think of his victim type as sex workers. Historian Hallie Rubenhold is here to change that with this incredible book that delves into the lives of Polly Walker, Annie Chapman, Lizzie Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly, letting us know who they really were while also giving us a window into what Victorian […]

With great power comes great responsibility

A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel

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Colour me surprised to find out that what I thought was Uncle Ben’s quote was actually much older than that, hailing instead from the pen of journalist Camille Desmoulins during the French Revolution. While reading this and following the fates of Camille, lawyer Georges Danton and politician Maximilien Robespierre, I couldn’t help but be reminded over and over of another superhero quote, this time from Batman – “you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.” None of the […]

No one ever said elves are nice

Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett

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Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. Elves are marvelous. They cause marvels. Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. Elves are terrific. They beget terror. The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice.” I was three quarters of the way through a 900 page beast […]

Gimme Shelter

Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day by Joel Selvin

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Everything I know about The Rolling Stones at Altamont and what went down I think I’ve pretty much gleaned through cultural osmosis, scattered throughout the various rock biographies, articles, interviews and documentaries I’ve consumed over the years (that decade loomed particularly large in my imagination as a teenager, so I consumed a lot) This is an excellently written look at everything that led up to the concert, what happened during it and the fallout from it that reads like a blend of some of the […]

Doesn’t live up to the title’s promise

The Worst Street in London by Fiona Rule

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The Worst Street in London promises to delve into the history of Dorset Street, once a street full of fairly well-to-do weavers making the most of their flourishing trade, that sank into disrepute as the work dried up and the weavers moved away. Apparently becoming the most notorious street in the whole of the city and one haunted by thieves, pimps, prostitutes and murderers, on reading this it turned out it was mostly populated by the desperately poor who were busy being fleeced by unscrupulous […]



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