Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Parts of Gulp are hard to swallow

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach

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I love Mary Roach’s books. They’re funny and irreverent and very educational. Her use of ridiculous footnotes rivals that of Gaiman’s and Pratchett’s Good Omens. So I had really high hopes for Gulp when I first picked it up a few years ago.  Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal is about the human digestive tract, from the mouth all the way down to the exit. It discusses how smell affects taste, the roles of saliva, why poop smells and attempts to make it not smell, […]

Kids ask the darnedest things about decomposing bodies

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty

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I am always on the lookout for science-y books that make science accessible to literature majors like myself. Bonus points if the topic is slightly quirky, such as brain abnormalities, digestive processes, or corpses. Because I’m a lucky gal, my husband also stays on the lookout for these types of books, and for Christmas he bought me Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? (Eat your hearts out, ladies!) I wasn’t familiar with Caitlin Doughty, but I soon learned that she is a New York Times best-selling […]

Making all things Death interesting, with Pictures

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty

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So technically I started this book on New Year’s Eve day but I did not get it finished in time to be a final review of 2019, so here it is as my first review of 2020. Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? is very much as it has been advertised: an entertaining, yet informative discussion of various questions a mortician has been asked about death and dying. The one thing that I was not expecting and still kind of doubt is the claim that […]

Please Mary, may I have some more?

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach

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Gulp is my second Mary Roach book (I’d previously read and loved Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers) and is a thoroughly entertaining trip through our digestive systems. I do have digestive issues of my own, which no doubt heightened the appeal of this book to me, but as it’s so interesting and entertainingly written, I expect those whose stomachs don’t kick off regularly will also find something to enjoy. Gulp takes you through the whole process – from smell (which actually provides us […]

Two nerdy characters and a make-over fake dating plot – in a Regency romance

My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh

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Official book description: Lady Grace Wyatt is content as a wallflower, focusing on scientific pursuits rather than the complications of society matches. But when a handsome, celebrated naturalist returns from abroad, Grace wishes, for once, to be noticed. Her solution: to “build” the perfect man, who will court her publicly and help her catch his eye. Grace’s colleague, anthropologist Sebastian Holloway, is just the blank slate she requires. In exchange for funding his passage on an expedition leaving London in a few months, Sebastian allows […]

The Munroe Doctrine

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe

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When I was in grad school, most of my professors used xkcd comics at some point.  I’m pretty sure I understand p-values because of this strip. My friend told me about a book by “that stick figure comic guy from class” so I checked it out. That was What If? by Randall Munroe. What If? is a book that provides real scientific and mathematic answers to absolutely absurd, but fun questions.  Questions like: How many fireflies would it take to match the brightness of the […]



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