Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Halbs

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I'm left-handed! (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Halbs's Quick Questions interview.)

Halbs's Reviews:

Choose this day whom you will serve.

The Kingdom of God Is Within You: Christianity Not as Mystic Religion But as a New Theory of Life by Leo Tolstoy

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I took a long, weird road to this book. I grew up in Texas with public-service-minded parents of faith. I was a political science major turned public-interest lawyer turned political staffer. Public service, making the world a better place, all of it. In my mind, Jesus’ line about rendering to Caesar what’s Caesar’s meant that, in my democratic context, I had to work the system for good. I navigated the classic political argument of the “problem of dirty hands” with all of that in mind […]

The Good Life is not the goods life.

Post-Growth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism by Kate Soper

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Kate Soper’s Post-Growth Living is split in two. It’s about environmentalism and true human flourishing. It’s about doing the right and also pragmatism. This isn’t a pie in the sky philosophy book – it looks at where we are right now and how we can change our thinking and therefore our action in order to build a more sustainable and happy future. In some ways this book could make more enemies than friends – Soper goes after our current cultural desire for more more more. […]

“There was something awfully unpleasant in that handsome face.”

Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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The first thing I want to say is that when I made personal journal notes while reading this one, I referred to this world classic as Crime & Punny. For some reason that was just the funniest thing to me every single time over the many months it took me to work through the novel. The second thing I want to say is that this is the fifth Dostoevsky novel I’d read. Even if his writing is frustrating at times, it’s also magnetic. As the […]

Ask the Opposite

In the Company of Killers by Bryan Christy

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This is a work of fiction. The characters, scenes, and oplot are invented. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but fiction can be more illuminating. What is not invented are the rapidly escalating threats around the world to journalists and other truth seekers; the dangers of privatized defense and intelligence services, of divisive entertainment masquerading as journalism, and of the rising surveillance state. The excerpt above from Bryan Christy’s Acknowledgement at the end of this novel tells you everything you need to know about the […]

“I will not let brutality rule my life.”

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

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This is a confusing one to review. I can’t call Ellroy’s Black Dahlia entertaining because the story is so brutal, misogynist, racist, and disturbing. It is, however, compelling. Just like the characters in the book, I couldn’t leave the mystery alone. Who was the Black Dahlia? Who killed her? Why? The book is unsettling, and necessarily so. I wouldn’t recommend reading it if the topics of rape or other forms of brutality are topics best not brought up for you at this time. While this […]

“Everyone loves a beautiful dead girl.”

Windhall by Ava Barry

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Windhall is a novel about Hollywood, the way men treat women, fame, obsession, and Los Angeles. Hailey is an antisocial journalist at a counterculture zine turned blog (I think) in LA. He is obsessed with the decades old murder of a Hollywood star at the home of an infamous director. His obsession weaves in with his own family’s story, as well as the DNA of modern day Los Angeles. It’s hard for him to separate the glamour and allure of the city with the facts, […]



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