Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Gut-Churning Good Time

The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul by Eleanor Herman

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What a ride! Big thanks to badkittyuno for putting this gem on my radar. Or, in the parlance of this book, allowing me to seek of the poisons of this tome via unicorn horn. We, as humans, have done some pretty vile things to ourselves and others since…pretty much the dawn of time. The Royal Art of Poison illustrates-in graphic detail- the poisonous things that people (mostly royalty, but the common man is capable of critical nastiness as well) have been doing intentionally and accidentally to […]

The Candice Millard Collection

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard

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I think it was the Reader Harder 2018 Challenge that called for reading a book by a female historian. It may also have been a twitter discussion about female historians but in either event I realized that of all the historical books I’ve read, very few have been written by women.  I wanted to remedy that.  Last year, or earlier this year as they run together, I read The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman.  Then someone here, maybe Jen K., recommended Paris 1919 by […]

Surgery Before Anesthesia and Antiseptics

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris

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Bingo 17 (Science!) The Butchering Art is part biography and part history of medicine, but mostly medicine. Do not read this is you are squeamish about some fairly graphic descriptions of surgery before things like antiseptics and anesthesia. The focus of the book is one the career of a Quaker named Joseph Lister in Victorian England; if his last name sounds vaguely familiar it should, and I’m surprised it doesn’t get more attention or pointed out sooner than it actually does. I’m also slightly ashamed […]

More like cutting my heart….

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Oh hello there.  Well CBR9 was a bit of a bust for me, in that life got crazy and I read exactly one book in Nov/Dec.  ugh.  But let’s give it a go again! I’m starting off this year with a book club pick, Cutting For Stone…and yeah, it was great. After an unfortunate reading hiatus, and a crazy holiday, this was a great book to get lost in. Marion & Shiva are identical twins born to a nun in Ethiopia at the missionary hospital […]

Tongue in Cheek Medical Info for Your Needs

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While my work is in history, I love to read science non-fiction. I bounce around from Mary Roach books and other things in a similar vein, and about half of my podcast listening is science based as well. When reviews of James Hamblin’s If Our Bodies Could Talk started sliding in I thought it sounded up my alley. Somewhere along the way, I discovered that Hamblin did his own audio and added that to my queue list at the library. In If Our Bodies Could Talk […]

Please read this review if you are a medical professional.

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I have read a lot of this genre – medical memoirs. According to Google, I have read literally almost all of them. I have noticed a pattern, and a problem, and I’m going to use this review space to make a request. 80% of these books follow a formula: author becomes a doctor, a bunch of funny/strange anecdotes from patient interactions or unusual cases. Some do it better than others, but if you stitched them all together into one huge book you’d probably barely notice the seams. […]



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