Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The continuing adventures of Mosscap and Dex.

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot, #2) by Becky Chambers

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“You don’t have to have a reason to be tired. You don’t have to earn rest or comfort. You’re allowed to just be.” Still cozy aspirational goodness, and more friendship this time. Also yet another book I should have reviewed much closer to finishing, as my memory of it has grown a little thin. The feelings I got from it remain pretty strong, however. I actually feel like I need to re-read both of these books and take my time, really savor them. This book […]

A Poem and Prayer and some F@cks

A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers

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Bingo 22: Verse I think I’ve found my preferred Becky Chambers series; the two Monk & Robot books I’ve read so far are philosophical, gentle reads that are still interesting with character and a little plot. The second one though is suitable for a ‘poetic’ category given that it opens with a poem and has a rhythm to it both in terms of the prose and the general story. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy has a really good opening; first the prayer itself that introduces […]

Unexpected Delight

This Book Will Make You Kinder: An Empathy Handbook by Henry James Garrett

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Best for: All of humanity (but mostly the privileged folks). In a nutshell: Philosopher Garrett makes his case for the reasons we should be kind, and the ways people falter at it. Worth quoting: “The problem is not that oppressed people don’t empathize enough with their oppressors; the problem is that privileged folk don’t empathize enough with the oppressed.” “Our beliefs about the inevitability of certain forms of suffering are intimately connected with our beliefs about what type of world is possible.” “If you believe […]

A graphic history of the philosophy of science

Heretics! The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy by Steven Nadler, Ben Nadler

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CBR14bingo star (the philosopher/scientists dealt with, among other things, astronomy) This graphic history of 17th century philosophical and scientific thought was written by Philosophy Professor (Univ. Wisconsin, Madison) Steven Nadler and drawn by his brother artist Ben Nadler. Using clever drawings and simple explanations, the Nadlers explain one of the most important centuries for scientific thought — the 17th century. If you ever took a Metaphysics course in college, you will recognize the names and ideas, and I wish I had had a book like […]

[got me] to a nunnery!

Matrix by Lauren Groff

Heloise & Abelard: A New Biography by James Burge

The Tigress of Forlì: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici by Elizabeth Lev

Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a 17th Century Forbidden Love by Myriam Cyr

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I thought I was going to need some time to recover from the exquisite The Everlasting, but really it flung me head-first into a literal rabbit-hole. A warren. An abbey. A nunnery, if you will. Also- The Atlantic just posted a list of books that were done dirty by pandemic releases, and OF COURE The Everlasting resides within those vaulted halls. I was immediately drawn to Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici after she was mentioned several times in The Everlasting. A distant relative of her spots her likeness in the […]

“It’s a calming thing, to learn there’s a word for something you’ve felt all your life, but didn’t know was shared by anyone else.”

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig

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That sentence from the introduction of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows sums up what this book is about. A dictionary of “made-up” words (I know, as if there are words growing naturally in the wild somewhere), it gives voice to the thoughts and feelings that we have every day but didn’t know anyone else shared. Part linguistics, part philosophy, part self-help, and a (very little) part humor, this book will make you feel, above all else, that somebody out there gets you. Author John Koenig […]



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