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:

Shipwrecked on Daddington Island: A Naval-Gazing Adventure

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

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David Grann does it again! Page-turning history, filled with interesting trivia, exploration of the borders of the human capacity for greatness and darkness, and pontificating on what it all means. He’s the best at doing all of it at once. This piece of non-fiction is mercifully paced – only 257 pages. Buy this book for all the history nerds and dads in your life. You are welcome; your holiday shopping is complete. The Wager has two meanings – first, the eponymous ship was part of a […]

Truth Killzzz

What Meets the Eye: A Mystery by Alex Kenna

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My goodness, what a read! If you like modern mysteries, seedy underbellies, art weirdies, or flawed people trying to do the right thing in an ambiguous world, this is yer book! Or audiobook! Or papyrus – however you enjoy books, try this one. Alex Kenna went to art school and law school and was a prosecutor; therefore, she is the perfect person to write a mystery set in the L.A. art world about an ex-cop trying to navigate the legal system. Kate Myles was a […]

“Fire applies the test, then the lesson.”

The Disaster Diaries: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse by Sam Sheridan

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This book is a perfect example of why I like being in a book club. I would not have picked this book out, myself. However, author Sam Sheridan provides not only an entertaining look the various skills and strains of “preppers,” but also covers the whole thing with an unexpected level of humanity and hope. The cover and the subtitle, in my opinion, do the book a disservice.  Sheridan doesn’t see himself as a lone wolf or an “alpha” or whatever guys who are way […]

“Looks like rain…”

11 Unabridged Stories from The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard by Elmore Leonard

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Western stories are horror stories. Desolation. Solitude. The Unknown. Monsters. That’s what they’re always about. I think that’s why I like them so much – they strip civilization down to a skeleton and then they ask the most basic questions. What kind of person are you, really? What would you do to live? Would you rather survive, or keep your character intact? Can you do both? This collection of Elmore Leonard’s Western stories was recently on sale as an audiobook, and most of the stories […]

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The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life by A.J. Jacobs

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I chose The Puzzler for my guy book club meeting this month, and it did not disappoint. We did talk about the book at our meeting, but my favorite part of the discussion was an impromptu show-and-tell session. Items included a lock-picking learning kit (with a clear Master-style lock so you can see the pins move), a legal puzzle as told through state law and agency regulation, an authentic Japanese puzzle box from the 90s, and a painfully detailed step-by-step children’s story explaining the moves to […]

Green to red, machinehead

All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

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This book delighted me. All Systems Red provides thought-provoking characters and ideas without sacrificing a single bit of fun. It’s both enjoyable and insightful, especially about personhood. This series came highly recommended to me by fellow sci-fi enthusiasts. For this first book, I checked out the audiobook narrated by Kevin R. Free. Based on the strength of this first entry in the Murderbot Diaries, I will go ahead and buy the attractive box set of the physical books. I would like to keep them handy to […]



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