Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I met a man who wasn’t there…”

The Adversary by Emmanuel Carrère

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Strange worlds, bingo I ‘found’ Emmanuel Carrère in a Guardian summer reads column. I must not have read it too carefully, because I didn’t end up reserving the recommended book at my library, but an earlier work, which I then absolutely tore through. The Adversary is a work of true crime, superbly translated by Linda Coverdale, about a man who annihilates his family. Jean-Claude Romand is a bourgeois doctor, a World Health Organization (WHO) researcher, who lives in France near the Swiss border. He is […]

“This is the man.”

The Crime of the Century: Richard Speck and the Murders That Shocked a Nation by Dennis L. Breo , William J. Martin

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On a hot summer night in 1966, unemployed seaman Richard Speck broke into a Chicago townhouse and murdered eight nurses who lived there – but a ninth, Corazon Amurao, survived to testify against him. I’ve known about the Speck case for several years, and it’s really quite a horrific yet bizarre story that made a great impact on the judicial system in Illinois. I was excited to get into a book that would cover it in depth, but I found myself startled and pleased with […]

Why is it always the innocents who suffer most?

Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder by Jerry Bledsoe

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CBR 15 Bingo – Edibles: Fritz, Susie and her sons are on mind-boggling amounts of vitamin pills, which they are observed taking by the handful to the bemusement and horror of their friends and family. No one can think of a reason why anyone would kill Delores and Janie Lynch in such a cold-blooded manner. But when their in-laws are murdered barely a year later, the police suspect that the motive for the deaths might be found among the ranks of the family. Bitter Blood is one […]

Roll Call of the Anonymous Dead

Lay Them to Rest by Laurah Norton

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CBR 15 Bingo – On the Road: Laurah and Amy spend much of the book on various road trips around the United States chasing down leads on the identity of “Ina” Jane Doe. True crime podcast host Laurah and forensic anthropologist Dr. Amy work to uncover the identity of the Ina County Jane Doe, who has been unidentified since her partial remains were found in 1993. Though I enjoy the true crime genre, I generally avoid stories which don’t have conclusive endings – I’ve always found […]

Our Man in Ghana

Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World by Yepoka Yeebo

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Read as part of CBR15Bingo: Africa. This non-fiction story centers around the country of Ghana, which is part of Africa. I didn’t know much about Ghana before picking this one up. Great soccer squad, often the nemesis of the United States Men’s Team. West African location. I had always assumed that the slave trade had ravaged their country but I didn’t know who were the worst perpetrators (the British, who also robbed them of their gold, though they were not alone w/r/t slavery). Fortunately, one […]

Life and Death in the Asylum

Broadmoor Inmates by Nicola Sly

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CBR 15 Bingo – Violence: On their path to the asylum, nearly all of the people profiled in this book committed violence to others, and many to themselves as well. Broadmoor is a well-known psychiatric hospital that originally opened in 1863, but until the 1950s or so, the “criminally insane” people sent there were mostly there for confinement rather than effective treatment. I’ve always enjoyed true crime, but having also recently become intrigued by attitudes toward mental illness throughout history, I was excited to have this […]



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