Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Yes, There Will be a Quiz

1066 and All That. A Memorable History of England, Comprising all the Parts You Can Remember, Including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings, and 2 Genuine Dates by W. C. Sellar

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cbr17 bingo School A real oddball of a book!  Basically, it is a photocopy of a previously existing library book, (dated 1930) including a copy of check out card and index card (remember card catalogues?).  The back blurb states: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations.  Within the United States, you […]

I should read more Susanna Kearsley

The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley

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StoryGraph Easy Reading Challenge 2025: All Alone – Read a stand-alone book Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC. My opinions are my own. It is 1613 and Prince Henry, James I’s eldest son and heir has tragically died. Rumours whisper that it might not have been by natural causes. Queen Anna is distraught, and King James is determined to punish the guilty. Andrew Logan is one of the king’s messengers and he’s tasked with going to Scotland to apprehend Sir David Moray, […]

Lord of the Flies with Adults

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

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CBR16 BINGO: Fiasco, because this mission to capture Spanish treasure was a fiasco from the get-go I’ve been putting off writing this review because, while The Wager seems to have been well researched and the writing is engaging, it left me feeling a bit tepid. Nautical history isn’t my usual jam, but I do love a good survival story (see Endurance for my favorite nautical tale and one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books). In the mid-18th century, Britain and Spain were engaged in the […]

A veritable feast

Food in England: A complete guide to the food that makes us who we are by Dorothy Hartley

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Put simply, this book is the first and last word on absolutely everything to do with traditional English (and British) cooking. I sought it out after a reference to it in, of all things, Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter’s The Long Earth. That small reference was enough to entice me, but did not prepare me for the sheer scale of Hartley’s work. Published in 1954, it’s a magnum opus that’s as much about cookery as it is about history, and traditional country life. For example, […]

“I can’t help thinking that the best thing that could happen to him, and to the country, would be for him to break his neck.”

In Royal Service: The Letters and Journals of Sir Alan Lascelles 1920-1936 (Vol. 2) by Sir Alan Lascelles (Edited by Duff Hart-Davis)

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This is a collection of mainly letters to friends and family from Sir Alan (“Tommy”) Lascelles, who worked as Assistant Private Secretary/Private Secretary for Edward VIII (David), the Governor-General of Canada, George V very briefly before his death, and George VI. There are also some letters from his wife and children in here as well to flesh out the portrait. The main reason to read this is the draw of Tommy’s descriptions and insight into David’s psychology and activities as the Prince of Wales, and […]

“I live with bread like you, feel want / Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus, / How can you say to me, I am a king?”

The Crown in Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication by Alexander Larman

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I picked this up based off reading the introduction for the sequel and seeing how much Larman dislikes Edward VIII (whom I will be referring to as David — Larman makes the choice to use Edward in his book, which is fair enough, but his whole family called him David and I prefer to link the name Edward to my much preferred favorite, Edward VII). I figured I should start with the first volume and see what led him to such vituperative language in the […]



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