Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

My mind is blown, and not because I’ve been sampling magic mushrooms

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds, Change our Minds, and Shape our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

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I have read many books on science and natural history, but few have made me stop reading every few pages to look up and declare to whomever is within hearing distance (currently, my husband and cats, because we’re in a pandemic), “This is fascinating.” I don’t care if you’ve never read a book about nature in all your previous existence. Entangled Life will ensorcel you with tales of carnivorous mushrooms, zombie fungi, acid trips, and superhero microorganisms that could end up saving the planet. If […]

“I can remember how grown-up I felt then, and earlier, since about nine. Because we age one way, in one direction, every age we are is the most grown-up we’ve ever been.”

Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sara Pascoe

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Sara Pascoe is here for you. There is no stone she won’t turn over and no story she won’t tell, because she is going to use her embarrassments, misunderstandings, failures, and larks to help you learn. If you are looking for a medical textbook on what it means to be a human woman then go ahead and look elsewhere. If you want a smart and unflinching comedian to share her life story with you while looking back through biology, history, and cultural norms in order […]

Science Lesson Via Storytelling

Cells at Work! Vol. 5 by Akane Shmizu

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It seems like Cells at Work! 5 was a surprise as in it was surprising that this was the apparently last entries in the original series; I had seen the pre-order for a vol. 6 that apparently got canceled for vague reasons. There does appear to be a spin off though, so the series isn’t exactly over. I don’t know what happened there, but vol. 5 does kind of seem like someone may have gotten a little tired or distracted by another project because it […]

Even slime molds find their way better than I do

Supernavigators: Exploring the Wonders of How Animals Find Their Way by David Barrie

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My friends, I have a condition. I suppose the commonly used term for it is “directionally challenged.” When I go back east to visit my family, my husband has to navigate even if we are driving in an area where I grew up, because his ability to remember where we are is so far superior to mine, even though he’d never been to the area before we met. When I go to a shopping mall or a medical complex, the only way I can find […]

Different colors “talk” to different pollinators

Flower Talk by Sara Levine

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The cover to Flower Talk was a bit off-putting at first. I had picked it up to process it for an order a customer had placed, but my curiosity got the better of me (I admit it, I look at customers books. I have found a few interesting things that way). A few minutes later I found a new book to enjoy. Sara Levine will now be on my radar for authors to watch for. Flower Talk is an amusing, factual and gorgeously illustrated picture […]

You can die from constipation. Just ask Elvis Presley’s doctor.

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach

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CBR11bingo: Science If you do a Google search for “how did Elvis Presley die,” most answers will mention prescription drugs and cardiac arrest. Until I read Gulp, I hadn’t heard that the King had what’s known as a megacolon, which is exactly what it sounds like: a big-ass large intestine. According to his personal physician George Nichopoulos, the condition gave Elvis such terrible constipation that Nichopoulous had to administer laxatives and enemas on an almost daily basis. Whether the condition was the result of genetics […]



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