Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

As good as this book was, I spent the whole time wanting to read something else.

Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age by Stephen R. Platt

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CBR11 Bingo: True Story I’m a pretty big history buff, but my familiarity is pretty constrained to the US and Europe. Unsurprising, given that I’m a white American. That’s what we’re taught in school, and that’s what we’re exposed to as a culture. But I’m also a pretty big political junkie. So China is a pretty important subject that I don’t know nearly enough about. Going into this, I knew that the Opium Wars were a thing. I knew that Great Britain sought inroads into […]

“It has been said that a specialist is a barbarian whose ignorance is not well-rounded.”

His Master's Voice by Stanislaw Lem

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When a neutrino beam with a possible message from an advanced civilization is discovered, scientists from many different fields try to decode the letter from the stars. Impeded by political and military interests, and limited by their own narrow-mindedness and hubris, they struggle to make sense of the transmission and to gain any useful knowledge from it. This is a deeply philosophical book, and Lem’s reasoning is absolutely sound. Since it is told from the viewpoint of one of the leading scientists, a mathematician, it […]

These hoes ain’t loyal (banned books, bingo)

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

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Um. No. I’m champagne taste on a beer budget incarnate, but it’s never led me to cheat on and bankrupt an adoring spouse. I am bougie as hell in some ways but I’m not about to let my kid go without so I can have luxury. I may have debt but I’m not about to turn a blind eye to it by paying off credit with more credit. I love a good fantasy but I know where reality’s hard border is. Fuuuuuuck you, Emma Bovary. […]

Crime, Boy I Don’t Know

The Galton Case by Ross Macdonald

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CBR11Bingo: I Love This (Not this book specifically, but post-war California noir in general.) For a while I thought The Galton Case might be the realization of my Ideal Novel. I suppose it terribly “male” of me, but there’s nothing I like reading about more than a tough-guy private detective dealing with a rich family full of dark secrets, driving around California and occasionally getting knocked out by street-wise gangsters. Raymond Chandler is the most well-known practitioner of the form, but for my money Ross […]

What did Marmee’s husband do during the war?

March by Geraldine Brooks

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Cbr11bingo Birthday. Geraldine Brooks was born September 14, 1955. Bingo #9 Geraldine Brooks’ 2006 novel March is a brilliant Civil War novel that imagines the lives of Marmee and Mr. March, the parents of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Brooks, a journalist by trade, has a history of writing thoroughly researched and highly imaginative fiction. I’ve read most of her novels and they have all been superb. Year of Wonders, Caleb’s Crossing and People of the Book are all fantastic. I know I read March […]

“I couldn’t help it. It just popped in there.” – Ray Stantz

The DarkDeep by Allie Condie, Brendan Reichs

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CBR11Bingo – And So It Begins . . . Nico isn’t totally beloved in the town of Timbers, after his dad’s environmental lobbying meant the loss of a lot of jobs from Timbers’ lumber industry.  Luckily he has his best friends Tyler and Emma to pass the time and dodge the bullies (mostly Logan Nantes, whose dad runs the lumber mill).  One way they avoid Logan and his cronies is by spending their time at Still Cove, the cliffside on the edge of town where […]



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