Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Explores the most common killers and how to reduce your chance of succumbing to them

How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger MD

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Michael Greger MD has dedicated his life to spreading the word about plant based diets and their health benefits as his grandmother was saved from dying young through this very strategy. In Part 1, he systematically explores the biggest killers including heart, lung and brain diseases, a variety of cancers, high blood pressure, and diabetes; explaining what the research says about their causes. (Hint: it’s mostly through diet.) It was interesting to read that diet has a much bigger impact on health outcomes then genetics […]

Sequel love

Heartstopper: Volume Two by Alice Oseman

Asadora! V03 by Naoki Urasawa

Magical History Tour #9: The Titanic by Fabrice Erre

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It is rare a sequel is as good as the first. However, sometimes there is one that you like even more “just because” you do. Maybe it is because the character is your favorite, or maybe it is because you relate to the character, or the author really got into the story and is moving things along. These three books may or may not better than the first, but they are just as good. I was able to relate to Nick in Heartstopper: Volume Two. […]

Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the ghosts….

Skeletina and the In-Between World by Susie Jaramillo

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Skeletina likes living in the In-Between world where she is the queen of her castle and can play with her friends who live there. And her favorite friends are the ones who are still living. You see, the living can enter this other realm in their sleep. And Skeletina has taken it upon herself to help those who come over. She tries and capture the critters who help create nightmares. She talks and listens. She learns and plays. It is a happily ever after. And […]

The UK Government Failed the NHS and All of Us

Breathtaking by Rachel Clarke

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Best for: Anyone interested in a health care worker’s perspective on the first couple of months of COVID-19. Anyone who just wants to feel a little more rage at government failure. In a nutshell: Hospice physician and author Clarke shares her experiences – and experiences of patients and their families – during the first few weeks of COVID in England. Worth quoting: “In a major trauma, it is effective logistics, more than anything else, that saves lives.” “It is abundantly clear that our patients were […]

Philanthropy is not the same as charity, or, how the Sacklers gaslighted a nation

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

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Living in the UK, there are certain things about the USA which are very alien to me – non-socialized medicine,  for example. I was also unaware of the opioid crisis in the States which has led to thousands of deaths from overdoses and the misery of addiction. Much of this can be laid firmly at the door of Purdue Pharmaceutical, inventor and manufacturer of a proprietary version of oxycodone (an opioid narcotic used for pain relief, which is more powerful than morphine), OxyContin. Other drug […]

I read some books and I want you to know about them

The Pack by Amanda Cley

A Perfect Spot by Isabelle Simler

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A surprise in the mail other day found its way to my desk. Two hardcover picture books from a publisher I do not remember asking for (but I am on publishers’ lists so it could be they cold-sent!) called The Pack by Amanda Cley and Cecilia Ferri and A Perfect Spot by Isabelle Simler. The Pack is spooky. Not in the usual sense of “creepy ghosts or goblins” but the tone is somber, and the sepia colors (with the hints of rare other colors just […]



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