Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Book on Video Games with Some Design Flaws

Game On!: Video Game History from Pong and Pac-Man to Mario, Minecraft, and More by Dustin Hansen

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If I have one complaint about Game On!: Video Game History from Pong and Pac-Man to Mario, Minecraft, and More, it’s to do with the page and section design, not the content. As the title suggests this book is a history of video games and game systems beginning with the arcade type things like Pong on the big Atari machine, all the way to Overwatch on many device types. The overall thesis of the book is pretty straightforward, that most hit games stand on the […]

The Yugo was a lemon, but this lemonade is more Country Time powder than fresh-squeezed

The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History by Jason Vuic

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I wanted to love this one, I really did! Much like my affinity for the dopey little Yugo, I thought I could at least love this book ironically. Unfortunately, I found myself feeling like no Yugo customers found themselves feeling: bland pleasantness. I love a good micro-history, and I love a good world-wide failure, and while this book is well-researched, it just could not hold my attention. Perhaps it was because I listened as opposed to reading, but I frequently felt like I had somehow […]

Violent Delights

Truly, Madly: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century by Stephen Galloway

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Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were an iconic couple in the acting industry, with their combined talent and looks. But the turbulent thread of mental illness ran through their intense romance, ultimately tearing them apart. I only vaguely know both these figures, Leigh better than Olivier because of Gone With the Wind. However, I have always been fascinated by old Hollywood romances because of how turbulent they are, and I was excited for this one. The author has a pleasant narrative voice – he is respectful of […]

Life Under the Regime

A Village in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd, Angelika Patel

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Wars come and go, but life goes on. And so it went on in the village of Oberstdorf throughout the 1930s and 1940s, with the rise and fall of Nazism an undercurrent all along – except it was one that swelled in a way that even a quiet little village couldn’t ignore. A few years ago I took a class called Experiencing Total War, in which I learned about what it was like for the average person to live through the world wars. It was […]

I always said, everyone gets a box of crayons and the same coloring book to duke it out ….

What If Soldiers Fought with Pillows? True Stories of Imagination and Courage by Heather Camlot

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What If Soldiers Fought with Pillows? True Stories of Imagination and Courage is a book of What Ifs, but a lot cooler than, “What if you were a dog?” or “What if you were green?”  It is, “What if people fought by not fighting? By using soccer, pens, seeds, and music and other non-violent materials and ways.” Each page, or you could consider them chapters, talks about true life events that helped people by planting food, playing soccer and so much more. Each example that […]

An interesting read about a white man coming to terms with his slave-owning family history.

Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball

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I’d never heard of this until vel veeter’s review last year, but then immediately put it on my TBR as it sounded really interesting. And it was interesting! For the most part. Large parts were a slog. It also didn’t really do what I wanted it to do, except in the preface, which was written in 2014 and not included in the original publication. Edward Ball descends from the Ball family, wealthy plantation owners and people responsible for enslaving thousands of Black people over two […]



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