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:

“History is…tragedy without catharsis.” – Barry Gewen

Wolverine: Road of Bones by David Mack

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One of our local used bookstores has an aisle of trade paperbacks dedicated to tie-ins with video games, TV shows, comics, and the like. I’ve found some fun stuff there, including books based on the Splinter Cell and Halo video games, Tron, 1960s Star Trek, and 1990s Batman. These books are never a bad time. The last time I was browsing that section, I picked up with Wolverine story for a couple of bucks. It made for fun bedtime reading with some unexpected pathos. In […]

“We’re alive!”

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

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I love the idea of retrocausality – the idea that actions in the future influence outcomes in the past. Or, rather, I’m interested in the idea of ripples across time. Like this – something in the future hits the water, and I feel the ripples now, and I felt it when I was 21, and 13, and 7. In other words, some major events impact us throughout our experience of time in ways we don’t understand, both forward and backward. And our ripples mingle with […]

“Life is filled with suffering, but it is also filled with many wonders.”

Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh

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For several years, I participated in a local mediation non-profit organization. One of my fellow volunteers was a career coach, and informally, a life coach. She had the calmest, welcoming demeanor. In every interaction, you left feeling that she wanted the best for you. I very much valued her input on my life, as well as her friendship. She was a big reader of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, so I have started reading him, as well. I started with the slim yet dense Being […]

Cozy Mystery in a Quirky Florida Coffeeshop

Cold Brew Corpse by Tara Lush

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Cold Brew Corpse is the second installment in Tara Lush’s Coffee Lover’s mystery series. (Here is my review of the first, Grounds for Murder.) In these cozy books, former Miami newspaper reporter Lana Lewis lives in her quirky hometown – Devil’s Beach, Florida. Since returning to Devil’s Beach after an unexpected divorce, Lana owns and runs Perkatory, a local coffee shop/family business. She solves mysteries while she’s trying to solve the problem of what to do next in her life.Sometimes, there are coffee puns! While […]

“California, here we come, right back where we started from…”

Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History by Alan Sepinwall

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I picked the lyric above from Phantom Planet’s “California” (The O.C.’s theme song) because it nails how I feel about reconnecting with The O.C., a show that holds a curiously large place in my heart. I’ve visited the show at various life stages, from being a teenage college student all the way through being a grown family man with kids of my own. Life changes, but my love for The O.C. stays the same. Why? What keeps me coming back? I picked up Alan Sepinwall’s […]

“If we have money, we shall have friends.” – Menander

The Wealth of Shadows by Graham Moore

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When I think of thrill-a-minute page turners, I do NOT think of historical fiction about obscure 1930s tax attorneys. And yet, here we are! Graham Moore’s The Wealth of Shadows is easily my favorite read of 2024. Are you as skeptical as I was? It shouldn’t be a surprise that Moore is adept at either the historical setting or dialogue – he won an Academy Award as the screenwriter of The Imitation Game. The Wealth of Shadows explores the economic arena of World War II, […]



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