Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Fee Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of a bloke trying to get down a mountain with his legs smashed

The Ogre: Biography of a mountain and the dramatic story of its first ascent by Doug Scott

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When I read this book we all lived in a different world – one where deciding to climb a dangerous mountain was more life-threatening than leaving your own house. Strange times we live in, folks… Anyhoo – the book. The Ogre is an account of one the people who did indeed try to climb the titular mountain, one that is apparently notorious amongst climbers for being extremely difficult. The first half of the book gives us an overview of the mountain, the region it inhabits […]

I should have probably read this at Christmas

Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay

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The obligatory Christmas tie-in to Kay’s This Is Going To Hurt, Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas covers the many Christmases that Kay worked for the NHS, with all the humour and heartache that one would expect. It’s an extremely quick read too – you could finish it in the time it took you to eat a Christmas dinner – which would fit perfectly into a stocking (remember this for, erm, nine months time I guess). Being an obstetrics/maternity specialist, babies who refuse to wait till […]

What an Idea Becomes Means More Than How It Got There

The Cold War Politics of Genetic Research: An Introduction to the Lysenko Affair by William deJong-Lambert

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  At the start of this year, I decided to focus a bit more on reviewing history books – more so than I had been previously. Come February and a couple of Twitter and media storms down the track, and I decided to revise this a little. I have no intention to stop focusing on history, but where I can, I’m going to try and dip into more into the history of science and bioethics. It’s 2020, and I’m sorry, I am going to get […]

A very straightforward biography of a noteworthy woman.

Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr

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Turns out I didn’t know very much at all about Sally Ride. I mean, what I knew about her was very limited, and half wrong. I knew that her name was Sally Ride, and that she was the first woman in space (she wasn’t, she was the first American woman in space; the first woman was cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who Sally once met covertly). So this book was very interesting for me, just in terms of learning about this fascinating woman, even though the writing […]

“Anyway, we delivered the bomb.”

In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton

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A lifelong Jaws fan, the most I ever really knew about the USS Indianapolis was what was related by Quint in one of my favourite scenes in cinema, so when I spotted this book, complete with its same-surname-as-me author, it was a must buy. It turns out – as always –  that reality is far, far more horrifying than any Hollywood blockbuster could ever wish to be. For those who don’t know what happened to the Indianapolis and her men, a brief synopsis. Fresh from […]

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 […]



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