Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Politics of Being a Medical Examiner and Coroner

L.A. Coroner by Anne Soon Choi

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Note: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. L.A. Coroner is about as much about the politics of criminal investigation as it is a biography of Dr. Thomas Noguchi, Chief Medical Examiner in LA from 1967 to 1982. That time frame means he was the one in charge of doing the autopsies and some other forensic investigating for the deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, victims of the Manson Family, Janis Joplin, and other celebrities. I have little […]

Women can make the world

Behind My Doors: The Story of the World's Oldest Library by Hena Khan

Miles of Style: Eunice W. Johnson and the EBONY Fashion Fair by Lisa Brathwaite

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History is a genre I tend to be drawn to. I like most formats it comes in, even true non-fiction if it is done in a biography or a solid presentation that does not get too fancy or lofty. And as I have said before, picture books are a great format as well. Therefore, combining the two can lead to some of my favorite reading, or at least to some really good reading. The first picture book I read is due soon (May 2025) and […]

With Enemies Like These

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

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I don’t think there’s much of a distinction between this and Ben Macintyre’s other works: it’s well researched, narratively streamlined, and occasionally thrilling. But this feels like his best book by far. And I don’t have much in the way of justification for saying that aside from how deeply personal it feels like Kim Philby’s betrayal still feels to him and the English. I say “the English” specifically because while MI-6 technically serves the United Kingdom, this is very much an English story. A story […]

Yo-Yo means: Come back

Pedro's Yo-Yos: How a Filipino Immigrant Came to America and Changed the World of Toys by Rob Peñas

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Who invented the yo-yo? Well, that I can’t tell you, but what I can tell you is that a Filipino immigrant helped make it one of the most popular toys of not just its time, but even today. Born in 1896, Pedro Flores was a young man from the Philippines. He would work hard under the conditions of events of the  time. When he was finally allowed to leave the country, he found his way to America. But it was not an American Dream right […]

When poetry made me appreciate basketball

Hoop Queens 2 (Sports Royalty) by Charles R. Smith

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To be honest, I have no real interests in basketball. I know there is a basket and a ball. I know that people play on teams. I know that it is very popular during March. I know that you did not sit behind a friend of mine at a game because her arms would get to flapping so hard and fast I was afraid she would take off. However, I know a little about poetry. And to be honest, I was wondering how poetry would […]

“New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common”.- John Locke

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris

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You have to love a book that starts with a (possibly apocryphal) story of an operation with a 300% mortality rate and ends with the invention of Listerine and the founding of Johnson & Johnson. This biography/medical history tells the life story of Dr. Joseph Lister, pioneer of antiseptic surgery and preventive healthcare, considered the “father of modern surgery”. Building off of Louis Pasteur’s then-novel germ theory of fermentation, Lister was one of the first doctors to start sterilizing operating theaters and surgical instruments before […]



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