Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Your past is not an excuse…but it is an explanation

What Happened to You? by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey

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I needed another audiobook to listen to on my way to work, and I didn’t have anything in mind. I started browsing my library app to see what was available, and I found What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing (2021) by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry. The title is pretty self explanatory, and Oprah Winfrey needs no introduction. Dr. Bruce Perry is a brain and trauma expert. In what feels like a discussion or interview (on the Audiobook, at least) the two […]

Even rich kids can have a hard time

A Very Private School by Charles Spencer

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An article popped up on my phone about a memoir by “Princess Diana’s brother” about his abusive boarding school days, and I was intrigued. Almost immediately, I put a hold on the Audiobook of A Very Private School (2024) by Charles Spencer. Spencer reads his memoir on the Audiobook, and at first I was a little distracted by his super posh accent. I couldn’t help but imagine what a snob he was. And later in the book when he mentions being the Queen’s godson and having his […]

An impressive athlete and interesting person

The Push by Tommy Caldwell

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I love climbing, and I already follow Tommy Caldwell on Instagram, so it’s a little odd that I wasn’t more excited when my book club chose The Push (2018) by Caldwell for our next book. My lack of enthusiasm stemmed wholly from the fact that I already knew a lot about him. He lives in nearby Estes Park, and I’ve seen a number of documentaries that detail him climbing the Fitzroy Traverse in Patagonia, the harrowing hostage situation in Kyrgyzstan, and his conquering of the Dawn Wall […]

“She was a nice girl from a good family.”

Mistress of Life and Death by Susan J. Eischeid

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As Head Overseer of the woman’s camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Maria Mandl was the highest-ranked female perpetrator of the Holocaust. In this book, author Eischeid examines how she came to reach this position, and more broadly the role of women in the Nazi killing machine. The architects and perpetrators of the Holocaust that most people are familiar with are male, but female Nazi party members played a major role in running the concentration camps too. Though the vast majority of them managed to slip back into […]

Love Among the Feral Set

The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

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If you have ever been exposed to the world of the British landed gentry (in books only, obv!), it is generally on the male side.  The young lads attend a public school (such as Eton), go off to one of the Oxbridge colleges, and then emerge as captains of the Empire.  The female side?  Not even close. My first exposure to their bizarre world was <i>Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford</i>, which I read and reviewed earlier this year.  The Mitford sisters were six in […]

She was for the birds

Birdlore: The Iridescent Life of Florence Merriam Bailey by Jess Keating

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Online reader copies have pretty much become the way that I read future publications as fewer physical reader copies are finding themselves in my hands. And one that I am glad I read, regardless of the format, is Birdlore: The Iridescent Life of Florence Merriam Bailey by Jess Keating and some far out illustrations by  Devon Holzwarth. Due in mid-March 2025, I am excited to tell you about it so you can go to your local independent bookstore and pre order copies. Yes, copies. You […]



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