Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Rome was built on the blood of Remus; the Republic was born from the death of Lucretia; the Empire grew from the assassination of Caesar.”

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon

by 1 Comment

Last fall the internet discovered that, apparently, men think about the Roman Empire a lot. While the Roman Empire wasn’t my “Roman Empire” (I honestly don’t know that I have one), it did spark a bit of curiosity about the actual Roman Empire, being an area in history that I haven’t given much study. Cue two reviews of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon by friends the same week in January and I had […]

What a Life.

Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford by ed. Peter Y, Sussman

by Leave a Comment

cbr16bingo pride Decca, AKA Jessica Mitford, was one of the younger of the six notorious Mitford sisters.  Their parents, a pair of very conservative British aristocrats, raised quite a brood.  There was also a son, but he does not factor much into the account.  Her mother decided that girls had no need for schooling (the boy, of course, went to college), and only allowed them to learn to read.  But that’s all it took.  They came into adulthood in the 1930s, and the oldest, Nancy […]

“…the domestic angel of Victorian fantasy momentarily gave way to a bloodthirsty ghoul”

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale

by Leave a Comment

Bingo: Rage Someone recommended The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher to me and, as someone who likes a good mystery and who started watching the tv show but then dropped it because of all the muttonchops, it seemed right up my alley. In theory I should love Kate Summerscale’s portrait of a middle class Victorian era family tragedy. In practice I think it could have used some editing and perhaps not every stone needed to be unturned (or turned?); however, I can be in the mood […]

Lost Paradise or Far Flung Trailer Park

The Far Land: 200 Years of Murder, Mania, and Mutiny in the South Pacific by Brandon Presser

by Leave a Comment

CBR16 Bingo – Bananas: A lot of people eat a lot of bananas across several centuries and a number of South Pacific islands. Also, this story is utterly bananas. Several centuries after the mutineers from the HMS Bounty settled Pitcairn Island, author Brandon Presser goes to visit this isolated place, where he tries to understand how the bloody and conflicted past has shaped the present day lives of the descendants. Considering how much I enjoy true crime and strange stories, it’s probably odd that I […]

“Women without prospect, who lead dull earnest lives and rejoice in their petty little pseudo-pleasures, I find quite depressing and despicable.”

The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon, Meredith McKinney (Translator)

by Leave a Comment

CBR16 Bingo: Vintage – Not only is this a very old book (written about a thousand years ago!), but it is also very much of its time, cataloguing minute happenings in the Empress’s court and listing out the common tastes of the time. Once there was an empress who gave her attendant a bundle of writing paper for making a witty remark. To highlight what a cultured place this court was, the attendant decided to record an amusing hodgepodge of anecdotes, poetry, and things both […]

The woman who supposedly said the only thing smaller than Hemingway’s talent was his d%ck…

Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes by JL Macy

by 1 Comment

I knew I had my cbr16bingo Scandal book when I read the line “your soft saliva, loosed with orgy, drip!”  This category was giving me trouble. I thought I was going to do a children’s graphic novel series for it (there is one big scandal that leads to several littler ones by the looks of the first one I read) but how could I not pick Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes as my Scandal book? Her whole life was a scandal!  She was […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo