Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Around the world redux. This time, plants!

Around the World in 80 Plants by Jonathan Drori, Illustrated by Lucille Clerc

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Back in 2019, I read Jonathan Drori’s Around the World in 80 Trees and was as shocked as anybody that I could truly love a book about trees. But love it I did, so much so that when I heard Drori had written a follow-up book about plants, I rushed to get my hands on a copy. Around the World in 80 Plants follows the same format as its forerunner: Walking roughly in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, Drori takes a trip around the world, starting in […]

A must read for anyone who doesn’t want their cat’s soul poisoned by the liberal media

How to Talk to Your Cat About Gun Safety by Zachary Auburn

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Reading How to Talk to Your Cat About Gun Safety is a lot like reading an article in the Onion. You get a few chuckles out of the content, but the biggest joke is the headline. Of course, How to Talk to Your Cat About Gun Safety also includes photos of cats being cute and doing ridiculous things like cleaning their rifle or wearing a sombrero, so that’s a big plus! I’m sure the astute readers of this site will realize right away that this […]

Ms. Was told me this book was a gem and, by gum, she was right!

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

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As a book lover, nothing delights me more than when a friend recommends a book to me and, after reading it, I’m able to go back and tell her that I unequivocally loved it. For a few years now, Ms. Was has been singing the praises of The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, and now I’m finally able to say, “Thank you for introducing me to this gem.” Brangwain Spurge is an elf entrusted with an important mission: Enter the land of the goblins and deliver […]

“Observe the plans within plans within plans.”

Dune by Frank Herbert

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For some reason, I’d never gotten around to reading Dune before now, in spite of it being wildly popular when I was in high school, a time when I was more inclined to read sci-fi/fantasy. Part of that popularity had to do with the release of the 1984 film starring Kyle McLachlan; in fact, I even have a personal story. When I was a freshman, I won third place in a Dune poster contest sponsored by Universal Pictures. The third-place prize was a t-shirt and a copy […]

The most poetic tribute to trees since Joyce Kilmer

Tree, A Life Story by David Suzuki & Wayne Grady, with illustrations by Robert Bateman

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“A lightning bolt illuminates the sky, striking the highest point of the forested ridge.” Thus begins the biography of a single tree. Tree, A Life Story is a 700-year-long tale that begins with a Douglas fir dropping a seed from its cone in response to a forest fire and ends with the fallen tree continuing to supply the forest with nutrients even after death. In between, the authors trace the growth journey of the fir as it takes root, matures, and reproduces. But what could […]

84, Charing Cross Road for baseball fans

Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger

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Last Days of Summer tells the story of a friendship between Joey Margolis, a Jewish kid growing up in 1940s Brooklyn, and Charlie Banks, a third-baseman for the New York Giants. Joey’s father is completely absent from his life, and it ain’t easy being the Jewish kid at school without a dad (he gets beat up a lot). As a result, Joey acts out, gets himself thrown into juvie for peeing in the reservoir, and embarks on a relentless campaign to get the attention of […]



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