Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Who knew ice cream could be so dangerous?

Van Wars: The Real Story of the Brutal Glasgow Ice Cream Van Wars by Teddy Renoc

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If you’ve never heard the story of the Glasgow Ice Cream Van Wars, then you certainly won’t get the full story here. What you will get though is Teddy Rennoc’s version of what happened when he drove one of the vans going up against the competing Marchetti Brothers, and in Teddy’s version the war really was over the rights to sell ice cream, household basics and the odd bit of stolen goods rather than heroin – I suspect the true full story lies somewhere between […]

We have to be better than this

Killers of the Flower Moon: Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

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An incredibly well-written account of yet another shameful episode in how white people treat others, Killers of the Flower Moon looks at the systematic murder and robbery of the Osage Indians in 1920’s Oklahoma. Having forced the Osage on to what was thought to be useless, unfertile ground, white Oklahomans were pissed when it turned out that said land turned out to be incredibly oil rich and that the Osage had retained the rights to the fortunes reaped from this in the original agreement to […]

Thinking On It

How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

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This isn’t going to be a conventional review because it’s a book I’m going to be processing for a while. Some background info: I’m a cishet white guy. Aside from economics, I’m at the top of any privilege chart (and being middle class in the States, I’m pretty high up there too). I’ve done some reading, most of it theologically based, on racism, antiracism, and specifically the black experience in the States. I’m maybe more well versed than most people who share my skin color. […]

On the outside looking in

Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir by Robin Ha

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This wonderful illustrated memoir is Robin Ha’s story of moving from Seoul, South Korea, for  the US as a teenager in 1995 and trying to make a new life here with her mother. It is a deeply moving story of a young girl, only 14, being suddenly uprooted from her friends and community, and having to learn a new language, adapt to a new family, and figure out a new culture in Alabama. Thanks to her art, Robin (formerly Chuna) finds a way to bring […]

Making me grateful to be locked down…

Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King

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When life gets a little tough for me, I tend to turn to non-fiction books about situations much worse than mine that people have survived – this usually helps to change my perspective a little and make me appreciate what I have, rather than what I don’t. Normally a dedicated introvert, even I have started to struggle a little with lockdown (helped by working from home) and so a little perspective adjusting was in order – this book fulfilled that perfectly. Skeletons on the Zahara […]

Science Lesson Via Storytelling

Cells at Work! Vol. 5 by Akane Shmizu

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It seems like Cells at Work! 5 was a surprise as in it was surprising that this was the apparently last entries in the original series; I had seen the pre-order for a vol. 6 that apparently got canceled for vague reasons. There does appear to be a spin off though, so the series isn’t exactly over. I don’t know what happened there, but vol. 5 does kind of seem like someone may have gotten a little tired or distracted by another project because it […]



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