Halbs – Page 26 – Cannonball Read 17

If you like the show Knightfall you’ll like this book.

Knightfall - The Infinite Deep by David B Coe

April 15, 2020 by Halbs Leave a Comment

Knightfall is a History channel drama-action show about the decline of the Knight’s Templar. It starts with the Templars being driven out of Acre and loosely follows history from there. It stars the conspicuously handsome Tom Cullen (longtime beau of the great Tatiana Maslany) as the main character Landry. Season two also includes Mark Hamill as an awesome, grizzled old Templar. At the time I write this, it’s not clear whether a season three of the show will happen. Nonetheless, the IP has expanded to […]

Good Intentions

Harleen by Stjepan Sejic

April 15, 2020 by Halbs Leave a Comment

Harleen is part of DC’s newish Black Label comics. They’re more adult in theme than the normal DC roster, and probably most (in)famous for including an illustration of Batman’s penis. While that particular panel created a lot of buzz, I do wonder whether the Batmember sort of…misrepresented what Black Label comics are supposed to be. I confess, though, I don’t regularly buy comics these days. I just grab the well-reviewed trades from the library. Maybe my perceptions are wrong. I digress. Everything you need to […]

“A fiery, foul-mouthed preacher who offered up profane salvation.”

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong

April 8, 2020 by Halbs 2 Comments

Like most Ali Wong fans, I first discovered the comic via her Netflix stand-up specials. They’re very funny, obviously, but also really relatable and comforting. If you have kids, she makes you feel like it’s ok to have the messy mix of emotions, dirty clothes, an unexpected swearing at strangers that comes with the joyful burden of parenting. It’s quite the mix – being so dirty (her word) and warm at once. The book is more of the same. Dear Girls is framed as Wong […]

“Write everything down.”

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron

March 28, 2020 by Halbs Leave a Comment

This was my first Nora Ephron book, and likely my last. [If this isn’t a good representation let me know and I’ll certainly revisit!] This is a collection written in the early 2000s, far enough past 9/11 that it’s enjoyably light and perhaps too far from the present that some of the lines are a little…dated? I don’t know. She lived in a different world than I ever have or will – fancy NYC apartments with five-digit monthly rents, East versus West Manhattan sunlight woes, door […]

“I buried my hands in my pockets, curious at the enormity of it all.”

Opioid, Indiana by Brian Allen Carr

March 19, 2020 by Halbs Leave a Comment

Brian Allen Carr’s short novel is an odyssey of a week in a normal life, broken up by long chapters for each day. The days are long, but the book is quick. Opioid, Indiana is about a teenager called Riggle. His dad is dead and his mom his dead. He’s been passed around the foster system and even the homes of his family, depending on whether someone wants to go through the hassle of feeding a kid to collect checks. Riggle is from Texas, but […]

I identified with this one so much I wrote the author a thank you letter!

Lurking: How a Person Became a User by Joanne McNeil

March 19, 2020 by Halbs 3 Comments

I don’t know the writer of this book, but in some ways I feel that I do. Author Joanne McNeil and I discovered the internet at the same time, as we were working out our own tween identities. Both of our families got on AOL in the mid-90s. We tinkered around with chat rooms, played with websites, clicked around just to see where we could go. As we got older we meandered into the blogosphere, finding like-minded people, ever updating blogrolls. We tinkered with MySpace […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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