This seemed like a fitting time to read Henrietta’s story, so closely following Black History month where her name has become a popular “little known hero” and did you know fact. I don’t remember hearing anything about HeLa cells in AP Bio as a senior in high school, but I do remember seeing the bright orange book cover of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” in my college’s bookstore. Since then I feel like the name Henrietta Lacks is a bit more common knowledge, which […]
Art as Ambassador
“In life you’ll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it’s because they’re stupid. That will help keep you from reacting to their cruelty. Because there is nothing worse than bitterness and vengeance… Always keep your dignity and be true to yourself.” – Persepolis I mentioned in my last review that I’ve been reading books for this Cannonball, so far, that are out of date. I mean that they are books published within the last ten to twenty years, but […]
I’m not sure using kids as spies is a great strategy, but since we did it, we might as well hear about it
Did you know that a 9-year-old boy once wandered into the camp of the British Army, took stock of their troop count & weapons hoard, convinced them he was just a dope who was lost & looking for a mill, all under the orders of General George Washington? Yeah, me neither. Enter Ariel Bradley: Spy for General Washington. The book was well written, and the pictures were engaging: I think the Kindle formatting was not very accessible (it chopped up the pictures and pages […]
Cruel Humanitarians
In Polemical Pain: Slavery, Cruelty, and the Rise of Humanitarianism, Margaret Abruzzo examines the contested origins of the idea of humanitarianism by investigating the proslavery and antislavery debates over the meaning of pain. This is an excellent book for understanding not only the intellectual development of the pro and antislavery positions, but also for breaking apart the concept of humanitarianism, to understand it as a contested and not static term. Read more at my blog…
Women, Medicine, World War I
In many ways, this novel reminded me of Kate Morton, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Both authors are from Australia, and both use the dual narrative set up for their novels, focusing on relationships between women and mothers and daughters. Technically, Iris is Grace’s grandmother but since Rose died during childbirth, she raised her as her own. The biggest difference is that to me, MacColl’s novel didn’t have the same page turner quality to it as Morton’s novel. That doesn’t mean this wasn’t […]
A Silly Little Collection of Historical Facts
Synopsis Via Goodreads: When Tony Perrottet heard that Napoleon’s “baguette” had been stolen by his disgruntled doctor a few days after the Emperor’s death, he rushed out to New Jersey. Why? Because that’s where an eccentric American collector who had purchased Napoleon’s member at a Parisian auction now kept the actual relic in an old suitcase under his bed. The story of Napoleon’s privates triggered Perrottet’s quest to research other such exotic sagas from history, to discover the actual evidence behind the most famous age-old […]
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