Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“To slowly, slowly give in to the inevitability of adulthood in the hopes that I will age as gracefully as Paris has.”

French Milk by Lucy Knisley

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First, a word on ratings and expectations. French Milk is by my quick count my third Lucy Knisley book (I read Relish way back in 2016 and An Age of License in 2018). So, when I decided to restart my Knisley experience I figured might as well go back to the beginning with her 2007 book French Milk thinking I knew what to expect having read books previously from the author about her mom, food, and travel and this book combines those in Paris. I […]

“For four years we spied and we worked damn hard and we saved people’s lives and we made a difference and nobody cared too much that we were women. And then it all ended.”

The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre by Natasha Lester

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Ex-OSS agent Alix St. Pierre seeks a fresh start in Paris as the PR agent for the freshly established House of Dior, but her actions and enemies from during the war continue to dog her steps. This was the oldest NetGalley ARC on my shelf, so it’s with a real sense of satisfaction that I’m crossing it off the list. And it was fun to see yet another fresh perspective on World War Two, that of a female OSS agent, and better yet to see […]

“Before you sentence the guilty, at least listen through to the end of the story.”

Memoirs of a French Courtesan: Volume 1: Rebellion by Celeste Mogador, Kristen Hall-Geisler (translator)

Memoirs of a French Courtesan: Volume 2: Spectacle by Celeste Mogador, Kristen Hall-Geisler (translator)

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Memoirs of a French Courtesan: Volume 1: Rebellion – 4 stars Before she was the famed courtesan Mogador, Céleste was a young girl with a troubled childhood running with her mother from an abusive stepfather. Sex workers were an integral part of Paris’s bohemian society in the 19th century, but one of the first of them to put her own story down for herself was Céleste Mogador. Having heard plenty on the subject in operas and Les Mis, I was interested in hearing one of […]

Thoughts of Home

The Flavors of Iraq: Impressions of My Vanished Homeland by Feurat Alani and Léonard Cohen

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The old “I was looking at my saved online reader links” comes into play with how I found The Flavors of Iraq: Impressions of My Vanished Homeland by Feurat Alani and Léonard Cohen.  I saw that it was the only one in that email (how I save the links) and figured it was a sign to read it. From May 2024, the history I grew up with comes back into play. However, instead of seeing it from an American or Western point of view, we […]

Yo-Yo Ma and His Gifts

The Music Inside Us: Yo-Yo Ma and His Gifts to the World (A Picture Book Biography) by James Howe

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The Music Inside Us: Yo-Yo Ma and His Gifts to the World (A Picture Book Biography) by James Howe and illustrated by Jack Wong might be one of my favorite new picture biographies. Read via an online reader copy, however, you’ll have to wait until early June 2025 for your chance to read it.  We hit the highlights of the life and times of this cellist. There are several facts in the text itself, along with extras as well. This lets the book grow with […]

Some might call her the first film maker ever, but for certain the first woman.

Lights! Camera! Alice!: The Thrilling True Adventures of the First Woman Filmmaker by Mara Rockliff

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Lights! Camera! Alice!: The Thrilling True Adventures of the First Woman Filmmaker by Mara Rockliff and Simona Ciraolo hit on the highlights of Guy’s life. The set up is like a classic movie with their title cards (the afterwards will let you know that they are titles of Guy’s films). The focus, while on Guy covers a lot of areas that the adult (graphic novel) biography I read didn’t seem to. Positive and upbeat. The illustrations, while fun and clever, might have been “too cute” […]



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