Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

There’s so much more to the world than we know

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

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CBR15 BINGO: In the Wild, because it’s about animal senses (which is pretty wild!) A bug called a treehopper communicates by creating vibrations through its abdomen. A dog’s olfactory sense is so acute that it can tell twins apart by their smell. Shore birds called red knots use their bills to feel prey under the sand. These are a few of the amazing sensory tales that Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ed Yong reveals in An Immense World. More than a collection of animal facts, An Immense […]

The darker side of science

The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science by Sam Kean

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CBR15 BINGO: Violence, for murder, icepick lobotomies, cruelty, and general skulduggery described in this book The Icepick Surgeon is the latest book by Sam Sean, my favorite science writer. If you haven’t read any of his books (like this one, or this one, or this one, or this one), they delightfully balance science with history in a series of true-life tales. As the the title indicates, The Icepick Surgeon explores the darker side of science, citing examples of how humankind has benefited from some really reprehensible […]

CBR15 Bingo: Strange Worlds

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

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CBR15 Bingo: Strange Worlds 15-word-review: Delivering food during the pandemic leads Jamie Gray to a monstrously exciting new career opportunity. Longer review: During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jamie Gray is working a dead-end job as a delivery driver for the very same company he got fired from. One day, when delivering food, Jamie runs into an old acquaintance, Tom, who remembers that Jamie’s thesis was on science-fiction and therefore thinks the job opportunity that KPS, the “animal rights organisation” that Tom works for might be a […]

It’s a Love and Air thing

Family is Family by Melissa Marr

Puff: All About Air by Emily Kate Moon

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Let me tell you a not so secret secret: I like books. But what is a somewhat secret is that I do not write reviews for all the books I have read. However, I am going to write reviews for the two below (both read via online reader copies) Family is Family by Melissa Marr and illustrated by Marcos Almada Rivero, due March 2024  While the “all families are different” theme has been done before, this is the first time I have seen it done […]

I’m not gonna lie. I came for the “monsters.”

Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovations at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

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CBR15 BINGO: North America, because Thomas Dent Mütter was an American physician, and his museum is located in Philadelphia, PA. When I heard there was a book about Thomas Mütter, I knew I had to read it. Some years ago I visited the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, which is a museum of medical history that “displays its beautifully preserved collections of anatomical specimens, models, and medical instruments in a nineteenth-century ‘cabinet museum’ setting.” A quick walk through the museum’s site should give you an idea […]

Just because I’m physically an adult doesn’t mean I don’t like kids books.

Copy That, Copy Cat!: Inventions Inspired by Animals by Katrina Tangen

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I am an adult. Okay, I am physically an adult. Mentally I am the perfect audience for Copy That, Copy Cat!: Inventions Inspired by Animals. Or at least the part about peeking into cutouts and opening the flaps. The idea of biomimicry might be a little over my head, yet, somehow a board book introduced the subject perfectly. Due to the board book format, this might turn off some of the older readers who would be able to “get deeper” into things, but if in […]



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