Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A lovely end to a trilogy

The Earl Who Isn't by Courtney Milan

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Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: 2024 Summer Release Disclaimer! This was an ARC from the author. This has not affected my opinions or my review. I have also paid actual money for my own copy of the book because Courtney Milan is on “my pre-order immediately when she announces a new book” list. Andrew Uchida works very hard to collect and cultivate seeds, plants, and vegetables, and every time he learns of a plant or vegetable that one of the diverse residents of the little town […]

CBR15 Bingo: Guide (Double bingo)

A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons by Kate Khavari

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3.5 stars CBR15 Bingo: Guide (it’s right there in the title) Official book description, because I’m still reviewing books I read in JULY): London, 1923. Newly minted research assistant Saffron Everleigh attends a dinner party for the University College of London. While she expects to engage in conversations about the university’s large expedition to the Amazon, she doesn’t expect Mrs. Henry, one of the professors’ wives to drop to the floor, poisoned by an unknown toxin. Dr. Maxwell, Saffron’s mentor, is the main suspect, having […]

Have a banana, Hannah!

Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel

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CBR15 BINGO: Edibles, because it’s about bananas BINGO: In the Wild, Violence, Guide, Asia & Oceania, Edibles The 19-page introduction to Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World is quite interesting. If you know nothing about bananas other than that they are a tasty and easily portable treat (and really, why would you?), you’ll learn some fascinating facts in these introductory pages. First, the banana most widely sold today, and the single most popular variety of fruit in the world, is the […]

Mind? Blown.

The Tree by Colin Tudge

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Well, I started this book knowing very little in the way of botany, and I feel compelled to point out the process of placing plants into various families is Seriously Bonkers, to use the scientific term.  The two biggest families are, in layman’s terms, the roses and the daisies.  But the roses also include grape vines, cabbages, oak trees, and rubber trees, while the daisies have carrots, coffee, ash trees, and olive trees for relatives.  Apparently it all has to do with DNA, but wow.  […]

Love and A** Tulips

Flowers and Their Meanings by Karen Azoulay

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Most people probably have some general awareness of the language of flowers even if they’ve never heard the term; at minimum I’d wager most anyone you ask would know that a rose usually symbolizes love, and if you were lucky you might even get someone whose knows some of the color distinctions (white = innocence or purity, yellow for jealousy, etc). Flowers and Their Meanings goes beyond that; in addition to reviewing the origins and general history of the use of flower symbolism in England, […]

Around the world redux. This time, plants!

Around the World in 80 Plants by Jonathan Drori, Illustrated by Lucille Clerc

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Back in 2019, I read Jonathan Drori’s Around the World in 80 Trees and was as shocked as anybody that I could truly love a book about trees. But love it I did, so much so that when I heard Drori had written a follow-up book about plants, I rushed to get my hands on a copy. Around the World in 80 Plants follows the same format as its forerunner: Walking roughly in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, Drori takes a trip around the world, starting in […]



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