Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Even slime molds find their way better than I do

Supernavigators: Exploring the Wonders of How Animals Find Their Way by David Barrie

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My friends, I have a condition. I suppose the commonly used term for it is “directionally challenged.” When I go back east to visit my family, my husband has to navigate even if we are driving in an area where I grew up, because his ability to remember where we are is so far superior to mine, even though he’d never been to the area before we met. When I go to a shopping mall or a medical complex, the only way I can find […]

Adding F*ck to the title makes it seem deeper

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

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The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck should be used in marketing classes as prime example of what you can achieve with proper positioning. This book contains some pretty basic self-help advice (decent advice, for the most part) but appeals to a new audience by including fuck in the title. People who scoff at self-help are apt to pick it up and think, “Hey, this guy swears, he must be like me, not like those ultra touchy, feel-gooders who have a Ph.D. in Musicology but […]

An open letter to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse

Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse

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Mr. Abdul-Jabbar and Ms. Waterhouse, Thank you for hearing my plea for more volumes in your wonderful Mycroft Holmes series. As I noted in my review of the first two novels, these books bring me such pure joy that as soon as I put one down, I regret having read so quickly. On top of that, this latest novel had me thinking that surely someone must be contemplating a movie or television series so I can enjoy the stories again in another dimension. To that […]

In which our reviewer contemplates the definition of nice, realizes she agrees with Tucker Carlson on one point, and learns that Scott Adams is batshit crazy

In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You are Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book by Joel Stein

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On my last trip to Pennsylvania, my brother-in-law gave my husband and me a copy of In Defense of Elitism as a sort of minor dig. (Joke’s on him, for one thing, true elitists don’t feel any shame in being called elite). This is a book that feels as at home in the humor section as it does on the political science shelf. It pulls off the trick of making you laugh initially at the innate silliness of it all–an author who sports a monocle in his […]

Kids ask the darnedest things about decomposing bodies

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty

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I am always on the lookout for science-y books that make science accessible to literature majors like myself. Bonus points if the topic is slightly quirky, such as brain abnormalities, digestive processes, or corpses. Because I’m a lucky gal, my husband also stays on the lookout for these types of books, and for Christmas he bought me Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? (Eat your hearts out, ladies!) I wasn’t familiar with Caitlin Doughty, but I soon learned that she is a New York Times best-selling […]

Entertaining enough, but disappointing

Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

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 Warning: While I try to avoid any outright spoilers, you might want to skip this review if you are planning on reading this novel. Summary: I found Moriarty entertaining enough, but compared to the fabulous House of Silk, it’s downright disappointing. Kind of like how Cars would be a decent enough animated movie from any other studio, but from the studio that created Toy Story, WALL-E, and The Incredibles, you’re like “Lame, Pixar.” Now, the review: I’m sitting in a little Japanese restaurant eating my lunch, […]



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