Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

My first DNF in years

Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science - and the World by Rachel Swaby

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From Goodreads: Fifty-two inspiring and insightful profiles of history’s brightest female scientists. In 2013, the New York Times published an obituary for Yvonne Brill. It began: “She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job, and took eight years off from work to raise three children.” It wasn’t until the second paragraph that readers discovered why the Times had devoted several hundred words to her life: Brill was a brilliant rocket scientist who invented a propulsion system to keep communications satellites […]

“Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end.”

Becoming by Michelle Obama

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This was a pick for my IRL book club in the spring, and I’m so glad! I don’t know if I ever would have picked it up otherwise, due to my avoidance of both political books and memoirs, unless they come suuuper highly recommended. (Sidenote: I love my IRL book club. It’s like having a bimonthly Galentine’s Day.) Mostly, Michelle Obama is such a good writer! She is t a l e n t e d. Her book also fits into my memoir sweet spot, […]

The Bad Kind of Glow in the Dark

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

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I’ve noticed a bit of an interesting trend for me: I’ve started getting a little more into non-fiction. Since I work with a good bit of that kind of thing professionally, I haven’t really done much for spare time reading. And yet here I am with what could be my third(ish) non-fiction review of the year. Unlike my luck with best-selling fiction (generally poor), I seem to have done better of late with the best-selling non-fiction. The Radium Girls is non-fiction, and the best kind, […]

Exhilarating, awe inspiring, and insanely readable

A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols

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A Voyage for Madmen was a real treat, a riveting read that I devoured over the course of one day and that was all I’d then talk about to my friends for another. In recent years I’ve discovered that I have a bit of a thing for tales of people enduring extreme challenges – be they explorers, climbers, sailors or their like – and finding out what they’re really made of (this despite, or maybe because of my personally being a very cautious person). A […]

Dangerous days for them, but terrific fun for me

Dangerous Days in Ancient Egypt by Terry Deary

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I’m a huge fan of Terry Deary. For those of you not in the know, he’s the creator of the superlative Horrible Histories – aimed at kids (but adults find a lot to love too) and concentrating on the gross, gory and gossipy bits – and now the Dangerous Days series for the slightly more grown up. Dangerous Days in Ancient Egypt delivers exactly what it promises on the cover – pyramids, plagues, gods and grave-robbers – all told with its eye on keeping the […]

I nearly cried myself dry

Dance with the Devil: A Memoir of Murder and Loss by David Bagby

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If you’ve seen Dear Zachary, you’ll already know of the harrowing case that is contained within this book. I haven’t seen the film but was gifted this, and can now safely say that I will continue to avoid the film for fear of crying myself into a dessicated shell of my former self. Dance With the Devil is the memoir of David Bagby, father to Andrew and grandfather to Zachary, whose lives were both cruelly stolen by Dr Shirley Turner. It’s a howl of grief, […]



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