Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Have a Drink

Tequila Wars: Jose Cuervo and the Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico by Ted Genoways

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Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: border. The book takes place in Mexico, our border neighbor in the States, and talks at length about how shipping alcohol and federal politics impacted Mexico’s relationship with the US. This is one of those books where the writer is trying to tell one story but really wants to write another. Jose Cuervo as a person doesn’t seem that interesting. He’s from a famous family, has a fascinating story, did some incredible stuff and observed a lot more. But […]

If you want the sweet of The Snowman, look somewhere else

When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs

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How do you make a book about The Bomb and War beautiful? As Raymond Briggs or actually, read their graphic novel titled When the Wind Blows. This is not The Snowman with its whimsy and sweetness. This is a book that will make you laugh, be sad, have an off chuckle (should I really be laughing at these poor people?), then you will not stop crying. This is an amazing Anti-War story that is not for the sensitive reader, but is a must read to […]

To tell the truth, the whole truth

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter: How One Boy Put the Spotlight on Syria by Muhammad Najem

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cbr17bingo Diaspora (this could be culture, but he upheaval of the Syrian people unfortunately fits.) Sadly, this book, Muhammad Najem, War Reporter: How One Boy Put the Spotlight on Syria, is nonfiction. I say sadly as nobody, let alone children and teenagers should have to go through what he did. Muhammad Najem, Nora Neus and Julie Robine gathered their talents and told the story of Muhammad as he risked not only his life, but the lives of his family, friends and neighbors. He wanted to be […]

Lee Miller’s War

Lee Miller: A Life by Carolyn Burke

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Model, muse, photographer, war correspondent – Lee Miller wore many hats and lived many lives, and along the way intersected with major figures in the Surrealist movement. Lee Miller had the tumultuous sort of life that makes for fascinating reading, and considering I knew very little about her past the famous picture of her bathing in Hitler’s bathtub, everything I read was a revelation. She worked so closely with more prominent artists of the Surrealist movement as both model and collaborator that it astounds me […]

“Politics is like dice: the better the player, the worse the man”

Heartstone: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery by C.J. Sansom

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It’s 1545 and Henry VII has gotten England into a war with France; seeing as it’s Tudor-Era England, war with France, Spain, Scotland, or England itself is not really that surprising. It looks like the French will land their invasion force at Portsmouth. Too bad that Portsmouth is around the area Matthew Shardlake is being sent by his patron, Queen Catherine Parr. A servant in Parr’s former household has come to the Queen for assistance; the servant’s son has allegedly killed himself after swearing out […]

“For even to listen to the story of the Trưng Sisters is, in these troubled times, a dangerous act.”

Bronze Drum by Phong Nguyen

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The Trưng sisters, Trắc and Nhi, are as different than each other than sisters can be, but they are united in one thing – their outrage at the treatment of the Viet by the colonizing Han Chinese. When their outrages grow too heavy to bear, they raise an army of women to fight back. It occurred to me while I was reading this book that not only do I know very little about Vietnam past the eponymous war (and even that mostly through the eyes […]



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