Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Starting off the year with crayons

Crayola A Visual Biography of the World's Most Famous Crayon by Lisa Solomon, Crayola LLC

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Somehow I’ve started the past few years reviewing a non-fiction science-y book; this year the one I started was denser than anticipated and I haven’t finished it yet. Instead, I have Crayola: a Visual Biography of the World’s Most Famous Crayon. This sounded really interesting, but I have to admit I was a disappointed that it was more corporate propaganda than history/biography. In retrospect, that shouldn’t be too surprising given that the company is actually listed as a co-author. There is a little bit of […]

The History of Flies and Mosquitos: Final Book of the Year

Historia de las moscas y de los mosquitos: y su influencia en el devenir de la humanidad by Xavier Sistach

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This is it: this will be my final book for the year, and #26 for my reviews. And I have saved the most difficult book for last   I’m not going to lie, it took my close to 4 months to make my way through Historia de las moscas y de los mosquitos: y su influencia en el devenir de la humanidad This is honestly because the books was well above my skill level. However, many of the books that were at my skill level […]

Very big thanks to andtheIToldYouSos for the heads up that this existed! Had a fun time nerding out.

The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 by James Shapiro

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This was extremely interesting. I am not deluded enough to think that it would be interesting for everyone. If you like historical analysis of notable literary texts, this book will be your jam. Especially if you are into Shakespeare. I have decided that this combination of historical context and literary analysis is something I really like. One of my favorite books of the last several years was Jane Austen, the Secret Radical, which did something similar, except across Austen’s entire career instead of focusing on only […]

One bada$$ Girl!

Girl on a Motorcycle by Amy Novesky

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Girl on a Motorcycle is a poetic look at the strength one woman, Anne-France Dautheville, had have to beat the odds and find a place (or in this case the world) she was most happy. Anne-France wanted to find a place where she belonged and was able to be free. This is the true story of Dautheville, who was the first woman to ride a motorcycle around the world. Each place she goes (flying to Canada first, heading to Alaska, Japan, and other nations) has […]

Long

Huey Long by T. Harry Williams

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Long indeed. And long indeed. So Long. So long. Too long. Pro Long. I’m not making double entendres here, this book about Huey Long is very very long. I mean yeah, what did I expect for 876 pages? A fair question. Well, I think that while it’s quite the read, and I understand why it gets the label of greatness it does, it’s too long (also too Long but we’ll talk about that more) for its own good. I’ve dealt with long books before. This […]

We’re all so f*cked

The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig

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It took me ages to finish this book. Not because I had troubles reading it, the language in this is in fact incredibly fluid, I would even say that German prose hardly gets better than this. It took me so long because the dawning realisation that people don’t change, they don’t ever change, is a lot to bear. The sheer relatability of this upset me to the core and it should reach so many more people. The World of Yesterday is the memoir of Stefan […]



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