Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I should have just posted “I like this book. Read it.” And put all the images instead of more text.

All Are Welcome: A Cat's Café Collection by Gwen Tarpley

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I had not heard of the Cat’s Cafe online/webtoons. Or if I had, they had not registered in my brain. Therefore, When I found All Are Welcome: A Cat’s Café Collection by Gwen Tarpley as an online copy (due at the end of July 2025) I was going into a new found territory. While it is said to be for middle readers, a lot of things are mature and good for adults as well. What I mean is that Cat’s Cafe is easy. We have […]

In Search of the Green Fairy

The Absinthe Forger: A True Story of Deception, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Dangerous Spirit by Evan Rail

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Among all liquors, absinthe, a high-proof anised-flavored spirit known for its green hue, has a special mystique for its alleged mind-altering properities, its association with the art and literature of the 19th century, and a nearly century-long ban in many countries in Europe and America. However, one unscrupulous enthusiast took advantage of its cult following to swindle collectors out of thousands of dollars. Last spring, in a small bar in Seattle, I was regaled by the story of how absinthe came to be banned. A […]

“Actually,” Stacy says, “Stanley Tucci is everyone’s type.” I nod in solidarity. “Amen.”

What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci

Taste: My Life in Food by Stanley Tucci

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The title quote is from Julie Murphy’s , If the Shoe Fits, which I think marks the first time I’m using a pull quote for a review that is not from either of the actual books I am reviewing, but I can’t really help it when someone else has communicated the truth so clearly.  In What I Ate in One Year, speaking about his friend & fellow actor Andrew Scott, Stanley Tucci muses “Can someone be too good at something? I mean, so good, that everyone else […]

Understandable how you could mistake this knife fetishist for a murderer, but he didn’t do it.

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin

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Thanks to NetGalley, RBmedia, and Recorded Books for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Yes, this book was written by a TV chef. Apparently he was on Masterchef—I’ve never seen it. But unless he used a very secret ghostwriter, he did a good job! I truly have no idea why the ratings for this book are so low coming out of the UK*, or why the cozy mystery people have not come flocking (though this isn’t a cozy, it does have […]

The Book of Eight Summers Ago

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

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During one summer off while in college, I worked as a waiter in a tacky chain Mexican restaurant. And for the first two weeks, I was terrible at it. Just awful. Triage was impossible for me. I wouldn’t have lasted half-a-shift at the restaurant in this book. My manager was very encouraging but one of my co-workers just had it in for me. She berated me, belittled me, basically made my life hell because I was a lousy waiter. I eventually got better and by […]

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, […]



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