Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A very serviceable cast iron cookbook

The Encyclopedia of Cast Iron by Cider Mill Press

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Cider Mill Press’s The Encyclopedia of Cast Iron is a good, serviceable cookbook. As advertised there are more than 350 recipes in the book. What works: the recipes come from a wide variety of cuisines and look like they are solid recipes. I tried a few recipes. I appreciated that the recipes were presented cleanly on the page. For me, a cook with years of experience, the straightforward directions were great. For an inexperienced cook, this could be frustrating because the book assumes you know the […]

“Didn’t you know the insides of dogs and cows and birds and fish are exactly like that of man? The only difference is the clothes we wear!”

The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales by Vasily Eroshenko, Adam Kuplowsky (translator)

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CBR16 Bingo: Dreams – Eroshenko’s fairytales give us glimpses of his dreams for a more compassionate and peaceful future where all are respected no matter their gender, race, class, or ability – and the fears he has about what may have to be done to achieve them. Fairytales as oral traditions bear the stamp of the cultures that tell them; fairytales when written by an individual bear the stamp of culture channelled through that individual, which is a different thing altogether. There really are some people […]

Whitewashed Histories and Walls

White House by the Sea: A Century of the Kennedys at Hyannis Port by Kate Storey

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CBR16 Bingo: Cult – The Kennedys have rather a cult following, and in this book particularly we learn how many people were so fascinated they swarmed their homes in Hyannis Port. When the Kennedy family decided to make their summer home in Hyannis Port, MA, they little suspected how strongly associated the place would become with their aspirations and their scandals. I’m a Massachusetts native, but my family’s roots there don’t go back long enough to have really witnessed the heyday of the Kennedys in […]

My Perfect Afternoon Snacking Cake is Perfect

100 Afternoon Sweets by Sarah Kieffer

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It took me a little while to embrace this cookbook. After trying several of the recipes, I now completely endorse it. Part of my struggle is that, to me, cookies are the perfect afternoon sweet, and Sarah Kieffer opted not to include cookies in this book (if you don’t already have her 100 Cookies cookbook you really should). The very first recipe I tried in 100 Afternoon Sweets was disappointing. It was the Jam-Filled Donut Cake. The first bite was good, but it got old fast. […]

“That was what it meant to have power, wasn’t it? You could simply destroy that which didn’t serve you.”

Seven Faceless Saints by M.K. Lobb

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CBR16 Bingo: Rage – Roz and her friends rage against the machine, trying to make a change in the very workings of their city-state. In a city-state where there is a sharp class divide between those blessed by the saints and those without magic, ex-lovers Roz and Damian must work together to uncover the identity of a ritual murderer. I don’t read as much fantasy as I used to nowadays – certainly I don’t read much YA fantasy anymore, especially from authors I am unfamiliar […]

May the gods favor you this night, dead thing!

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark

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If you haven’t read P. Djèlí Clark yet, you are denying yourself some of the finest fantasy writing currently available. As he proved in one of my all time favorite novellas, A Dead Djinn in Cairo, he can build a whole world with just a few details. In The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, he has left au earth and has built a whole new world in the port city of Tal Abisi. I don’t feel like I should tell you much about the plot. The […]



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