Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Bated Breath

Breathless by Amy McCulloch

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The great irony about climbing the eight thousanders is this: hubris on those mountains will get you killed, but it requires a great deal of hubris to climb those mountains in the first place. Or is that just me? I love mountaineering stories, even though I have zero desire to crawl up one myself. I guess it’s the niche equivalent of watching football rather than playing it. Even if I had had the desire to put myself through something so strenuous, then Jon Krakauer’s Into […]

So. You Like Mountaineering? Say No More.

Singing Waters by Ann Bridge

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So I picked this up from a library book sale because it had an old 1940s-ish binding (turns out publishing date is 1946) and I am a sucker for those.  There is an embossed scene of a mountainous valley on the cover, but the author is unknown to me.  We start off with a man with the Scandinavian name of Nils on a train wandering through the Italian pre-WWII countryside.  He ends up being paired in the dining car with an attractive fellow solo passenger, […]

And the Abyss Stared Back

Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

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  Mountaineering is a strange hobby. It’s not one I partake in: too strenuous, too expensive, too risky. Nevertheless I’m intrigued by it. I must have read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air at least three times. He does a good job of portraying the appeal of the sport, but illustrates the dangers and risks too – risks to himself, but to others as well. So does Olde Heuvelt’s Echo, except that it adds a twist to the familiar story. It’s easy to see where he […]

“that most of us were probably seeking above all else, something like a state of grace.”

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I became a history major because I love a good story, and at its core that’s what I have always viewed history to be – a series of really great stories. These stories have larger meanings in that we are able to take our experiences and use them as a method for understanding the forces at play for, and the decisions made by, those who came before us. I’m lucky enough to be able to have the types of conversations in my work as a […]

The Second Highest Peak is Harder

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If you liked Into Thin Air or have an interest in high altitude climbing this is a good book for you.  Ed Viesturs is an accomplished climber; he was on Everest in 1996 during the tragedies described in Into Thin Air. He has climbed all fourteen 8000 meter peaks and unlike many others is still alive.  With all of his experience, he brings credibility to his review of 8 different expeditions to summit K2 , including his own.  The most interesting of these expeditions are […]



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