Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Beware those who promise that they have the answer to everything

Starvation Heights: A True Story of Murder and Malice in the Woods of the Pacific Northwest by Gregg Olsen

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Perfect reading for cold, dark nights, Starvation Heights is a fantastic helping of true crime that reads like a thriller that will have you constantly scurrying to the kitchen for sandwiches, as well as giving a wide berth to anyone who sets themselves up as a health guru. In 1911, two wealthy British sisters – of the type that my line of work tends to call the ‘worried well’ – travelled to the United States in order to undergo the ‘fasting cure’ in the sanitarium […]

Compelling And Satisfying

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

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Best for: Anyone who enjoys a true story about shady people who (for the most part) get what’s coming to them. In a nutshell: An experienced Elizabeth Holmes convinces a lot of people that she is on to the next big thing in biotechnology. She isn’t, and she gets VERY touchy when people point that out. Also, lots of powerful old white guys make some absurd financial decisions. Worth quoting: N/A Why I chose it: I listened to the podcast “The Drop Out,” which is […]

How to sit when you poo and other important questions.

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Do you ever lie awake at night and wonder what’s going on inside your stomach? Do you examine your poo before you flush? Do you know what tonsil stones are? Well, if you’re curious about any of the above, you should read Gut by Giulia Enders, because not only does she have answers, she also has a cheeky way of explaining how some parts of our bodies work that most of us just choose to ignore, because…. eeewwwwww. I made a conscious decision to stop reading *diet* […]

Do Not Lick This Book!!!

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Idan Ben-Barak and Julian Frost are respected microbiologists who have created the YouTube series Dumb Ways to Die. They have collaborated with each other this time for a book called Do not lick this book* (It’s Full of Germs). They follow the different types of germs that live on and in our bodies. And while there are cartoon characters, photographs that show you what they really look like. These are done by Linnea Rundgren. Perhaps the author biographies are the best example of the tone […]

“Health and dignity are indissociable in human beings.”

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It’s hard for me to gauge exactly how interesting a book like this may be to someone else, because when asked about my fantasy dream career, I say epidemiologist. And not the fun kind – the data wonk kind. I think objectively, this book is objectively “exciting” if you have a tolerance for fairly dry excitement, and a lot of details on slow, frustrating, painstaking searches for pathogens, outbreaks, sources of contamination, and underlying causes of the things that plague us. Despite the rather dramatic […]

Maybe Your Lovely Wife Should Have Written This Book Instead?

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First review ever. Please be kind. Mark Lukach and his wife Giulia meet at college and immediately fall deeply in love. Giulia is an ambitious woman whose life goals are to have a great career and three kids by the time she’s 35. Mark wants to be a teacher. After college, Giulia works in New York, while Mark takes frequent trips to visit her. After they move to San Francisco and Giulia starts a new job, she begins experiencing intense anxiety about her job performance. […]



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