Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I am hoping that you have misjudged yourself.

On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn

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The last full length book in the Bridgerton series at last! Since the love birds here both have a fondness for breakfast, I will proceed with a comestible more appropriate to this novel. If book 8 in the Bridgerton series were a breakfast situation, it would be a scramble of 90’s Rom Coms with a side of Austen hash browns. Young George has come a long way from tossing peas across the dinner table and hiding frogs in his sisters’ beds. As the last of the Bridgerton brood to […]

“White supremacy … is gravity. It is a ceaseless pressure intended to keep blackness ground-bound and sick.”

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young

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Damon Young is a Black Pittsburgh writer who has gotten national attention thanks in part to a blog he co-writes called Very Smart Brothas (now part of The Root). I started following it on social media a few years ago and have found it to be funny, entertaining, informative and a source of sharp social criticism. The local story that really put Damon Young and VSB on my radar had to do with a local white female newscaster who stepped in it with some horribly […]

In the 17th century, birds were appreciated for their beauty, and also their tastiness

Pasta for Nightingales: A 17th-Century Handbook of Bird-Care and Folklore by Giovanni Pietro Olina

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The common hoopoe gets drunk on fermented grapes; goldfinches suffer from epilepsy; to properly keep francolins, you must keep a small crate or case within the aviary for the birds to nestle down in. These are just a few of the handy tips that Giovani Pietro Olina offers in his 17th-century handbook on bird care, Pasta for Nightingales. This charming little tome is an English translation of a book written in 1622, called Uccelliera, which is Italian for The Aviary. The title of the English […]

Dresden’s very long list of things to do and the best quote, “Home is where you embrace the present and plan the future.  It’s where the books are.”

Peace Talks by Jim Butcher

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For the first time I’m going to attempt to work on my review while still reading the book.  Let’s see what happens! 2/23 : I haven’t touched a Dresden novel since the release of the previous volume in 2014, so before cracking open Peace Talks had to look up recaps for Skin Game and Cold Days to refresh my memory.  As it’s been several years, I had forgotten how quickly the stakes are introduced and Harry is thrown into the fire but this book seems to have […]

Fantasy newbie thinks the 2nd LOTR is great

The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings #2) by J.R.R. Tolkien

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I am late to the game when it comes to fantasy epics. I have read and reread Harry Potter more times than I can count, but anything more hardcore than that has historically failed to grasp my attention (looking at you, Game of Thrones). I am so very happy that I decided to embark on my own hobbit-sized journey to read Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, because it has paid off handsomely. The second part of Tolkien’s trilogy follows the Fellowship after their […]

“As any magician knows, it is not the smoke and mirrors that trick people; it is that the human mind makes assumptions and misunderstands them as truths.”

Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur

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I got this book as a holiday gift from a friend whose book taste I trust implicitly. She told me she hadn’t been able to put it down when she read it. I was skeptical — I’m just not really a non-fiction person. In fact, I’m pretty sure this was my first-ever memoir written by a non-celebrity. I usually just want to sit with a story and not think about real life. Why would I want to spend my precious book time reading about someone […]



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