Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Professional Science Gets Ugly

The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson

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Bingo 4: People In addition to the cover being of a person, this is also a book about people on several levels, down to the genetics. On the surface it’s the biography of one of the winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Jennifer Doudna for her work with the CRISPR. The thing is, that’s actually not totally accurate. This book is also an introduction to bio-engineering and general molecular biology, an expose on academic science world and how it’s shifted to more business […]

There is a curse. They say: May you live in interesting times.

Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett

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Bingo 3: Gateway I initially got into Terry Pratchett because of the interesting and wacky cover illustrations of the original British paperbacks done by Josh Kirby. I remember picking one up a few times in a used bookshop before actually purchasing it. The interesting thing about the Discworld series is that it contains several character focused threads: Death, the witches, the wizards, the Watch, and assorted. This is one of the first series’ that I can remember starting and then chasing down all past and […]

Our Boys’ Own Wine Adventures. Also, I Know How to Say Château d’Yquem Now

Stalin's Wine Celler by John Baker, Nick Place

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…for which I am very proud. I’ve said often enough that I find the book recommendations from Audible (My main source of audiobooks) a little bit rubbish. But occasionally it comes through for me — like, I never knew I needed to read a biography of the HMS Erebus, but that turned out to be a fantastic read that readily started spruiking to everyone. I also didn’t know that a book about potential wine-crime might also pique my interest, but here we are: I cut […]

Absolutely do not read this book

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent

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BINGO – The Wilds [TW: sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse, abuse of a minor, gun violence, language (which I’ve included in white text below)] There’s been some discussion recently on Cannonball Read about how far into a book does one go before giving up. My procedure is to give a a book at least 1/3 of its total page count before giving up entirely. My 11th grade English teacher, Mrs. Julie Cogburn (one of the best I ever had), shared this procedure with us. […]

The Danger of a Simple Story – Antebellum Version

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

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This book has been on my bookshelf since December 2019 when my mom, sister, and I started doing our own version of Jolabokaflod. I’ve been meaning to read it but it took two short vacations for me to make time to actually dive into the life of George Washington Black, a young slave living on a plantation in Barbados.  Esi Edugyan’s novel is brutal and hauntingly written and totally not what I expected. The novel begins in the 1830’s where a 10-year-old George Washington Black, […]

Lee Smith and friend

Oral History by Lee Smith

The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed by Lee Smith

Sweet Hollow by Lou Crabtree

Fancy Strut by Lee Smith

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Cbr13Bingo – Gateway Oral History – 5/5 Stars I don’t know what they did to this book, but the most recent covers are terrible. I love Lee Smith, and I like a lot of fiction that looks like the recent covers of these books, and they are NOT the same. This book is devilish. You should know that going in. Our protagonist is a contemporary woman living in a small town in the far southwestern mountains of Virginia. This panhandle part of Virginia is so […]



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