Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Old Wives Tales Vs. Science

Expect Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong, and What You Really Need to Know by Emily Oster

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After much wondering if it was even possible, hubby and I are expecting. And while I’d done quite a bit of research on the process and probability of conception, I’d done virtually no research on what to do after you managed to succeed (mostly because I didn’t think we would). Days after my second positive test, I stared at the coffee pot, vaguely remembering my pregnant friends abstaining from caffeine, fish, deli meats and a hoard of other things. I stood in a first-trimester fatigue […]

I don’t like science, I don’t like nonfiction, but I loooove Georgia Hardstark

The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

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Georgia from My Favorite Murder recommended Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time, which is one of my favorite books in my CBR history. So when she recommended a book about the history of the periodic table of the elements, I decided to check it out despite its non-fictionness. I was expecting stories that just happened to tie in elements, but this is straight up history. Who discovered which elements, how they did it, how those elements are used today, who won which Nobel Prize, and so […]

A pinch of this and a pinch of that and a whole lotta potatos!

Chef Yasmina and the Potato Panic by Wauter Mannaert

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Chef Yasmina and the Potato Panic by Wauter Mannaert had a lot of potential. It started with the cover (I know do not judge a book by its cover, but I was hoping this would be a fun romp about cooking, friendship and for some odd reason, a mystery). However, I never completely found it in the actual story. I was weary at first as they first few pages had no text. Which is okay for some things, like a picture book. But when you have […]

The Only Winner Here is Corn.

The Scientist and The Spy by Mara Hvistendahl

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On one hand, I enjoyed reading The Scientist and the Spy, really. Mara Hvistendahl has given us a really compelling account of economic espionage. But Christ, this book is a sticky one. It covers multiple topics I’m interested in: genetics, agriculture, international relations and intellectual property—and political shit-storms. But it also makes me want to bang my head against the wall while crying out ‘everyone’s a pack of arseholes’ because that was basically the only conclusion I could come to. But with a story this […]

Two women. Two powerhouses

The Power of Her Pen: The Story of Groundbreaking Journalist Ethel L. Payne by  Lesa Cline-Ransome

Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence by Karla Valenti

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Another recent health issue caused me to have a few days off from work and I did some reading. I first picked up a few picture books as I figured I could concentrate on them. And except for one book, they were all not easy. The first two were about women of history. Women that we might not know about or know about, but not everything. The Power of Her Pen: The story of Groundbreaking Journalist Ethel L. Payne by Lesa Cline-Ransome and John Parra is […]

Experiments and Science!

Test This Book!: A Laugh-Out-Loud Picture Book about Experiments and Science! by Louie Zong

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Test This Book!: A Laugh-Out-Loud Picture Book about Experiments and Science! has a title is almost longer than the book. The basic idea is there are two scientists (a bear and a frog), and they are teaching you how to do experiments. They use a book (in fact the book you are holding) as the example. You need to see if you can shake a book and then you see what happens and record it. Also, other tests such as what happens if you sit […]



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