HF How to Dodge a Cannonball

[lupaglupa]

In the weekly email from the folks at the New York Times Book Review which came today I found a recommendation for a new novel entitled How to Dodge a Cannonball. It's the story of a white boy who ends up pretending to be black to join the USCT. The review calls it a satirical novel and the reviewer says he laughed out loud enough reading it to get strange looks from people nearby. I put a request in at my library and I'll report back when I read the book. It seems to me we don't have many comic novels about the Civil War so this should be a fun change of pace.

Here's the review for those who pay for access to the Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/books/review/how-to-dodge-a-cannonball-dennard-dayle.html

...and something from the publisher for those who don't:

How to Dodge a Cannonball

A New York Times Editor’s Choice PIckHow to Dodge a Cannonball is a razor-sharp satire that dives into the heart of the Civil War, hilariously questioning ...

us.macmillan.com

 

[cheesydn]

This individual site has been visiting 157 times, and still no answer to it. Well, here your answer. Buy the book by author Dennard Dayle.


An entertaining book about a young lad who serve on both sides.

"Here is an author capturing, with clarity, our current moment by flashing us back to the past. Dayle's deft portrayal of American anti-Blackness, class exploitation and cultural uncertainty feels both accurate to the novel's 19th-century setting and, soberingly, very contemporary... It takes an author of rare and exceptional talent to deliver such a knockout punch. Which is why How to Dodge a Cannonball establishes Dennard Dayle as a new heavyweight in town."
―Mat Johnson in The New York Times

 

[lupaglupa]

My husband surprised me with a copy so it's now on my pile.

 

[cheesydn]

You, my Lt. Colonel, have a smart husband.
My wife known I loved, and buy me books, on books. My collection is closing in on 100 books on the Civil War.
One fiction book by Newt Gingerich. If the South won the War, or something like that.

Dan

 

[Library Lady]

You, my Lt. Colonel, have a smart husband.
My wife known I loved, and buy me books, on books. My collection is closing in on 100 books on the Civil War.
One fiction book by Newt Gingerich. If the South won the War, or something like that.

Dan

Professors Gingrich and Forstchen wrote an alternate history Civil War trilogy: Gettysburg, Grant Comes East and Never Call Retreat. If this genre appeals to you, I think you'll find these books to be entertaining. They also did an alternate history of World War II in the Pacific. I still need to get the third book, 1945, but Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8 and Days of Infamy were very good.

 

[scooter748driver]

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a cannonball.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

My husband surprised me with a copy so it's now on my pile.

Please, @lupaglupa, confess How Many Civil War books are backed up in your reading pile!

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Please, @lupaglupa, confess How Many Civil War books are backed up in your reading pile!

It has been almost four hours since the request was posed. @lupaglupa has certainly been active on CWT in that time. @lupaglupa has STILL not confessed HOW MANY books are backed up in her Civil War reading pile.
(This is being posed with humor.)

 

[Library Lady]

Well, geez, @13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf . @lupaglupa is usually pretty responsive. She's probably still counting. Cut her some slack! It you asked me about my "read me" piles, "wish lists" at 3 libraries and 3 digital services and the special list just for the interlibrary loan librarian it would probably take me at least 4 hours to give you an answer, too.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Well, geez, @13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf . @lupaglupa is usually pretty responsive. She's probably still counting. Cut her some slack! It you asked me about my "read me" piles, "wish lists" at 3 libraries and 3 digital services and the special list just for the interlibrary loan librarian it would probably take me at least 4 hours to give you an answer, too.

Let's give her a break, and say that only books that are in her possession physically count. That makes the counting easier, and perhaps her counting will only end in the dozens or hundreds.
P.S. My own stack is way too big at 14.

 

[lupaglupa]

It has been almost four hours since the request was posed. @lupaglupa has certainly been active on CWT in that time. @lupaglupa has STILL not confessed HOW MANY books are backed up in her Civil War reading pile.
(This is being posed with humor.)

Honestly, not that many. I typically see a book I want to read and read it pretty quickly. I'm a fast reader and go through about 100 books a year.

I don't read non-fiction unless it fits with a research subject I'm focused on or is needed to prep for an upcoming trip. So right now on my Kindle I have a book about Fredericksburg. I'll probably read it closer to the muster.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Honestly, not that many. I typically see a book I want to read and read it pretty quickly. I'm a fast reader and go through about 100 books a year.

I don't read non-fiction unless it fits with a research subject I'm focused on or is needed to prep for an upcoming trip. So right now on my Kindle I have a book about Fredericksburg. I'll probably read it closer to the muster.

HURRAH for your honest response (albeit without a specific number). I do indeed enjoy many and most of your posts!