Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Jake

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I love reading! (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Jake's Quick Questions interview.)

Jake's Reviews:

Ready For Her Close-Up

North of Montana by April Smith

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I read an interview with famed Los Angeles-based crime writer Michael Connelly where he was asked to give two recommendations for under-appreciated LA novels. North of Montana is one he mentioned and I was intrigued by it. I had no familiarity with the work of April Smith and the premise sounded interesting enough, especially how Connelly pitched it: a procedural novel with a female detective who has to deal with her male colleagues bullcrap. So I picked it up. I see what Connelly likes about it. […]

Mess In Texas

The Dime by Kathleen Kent

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The Dime is an interesting book. It purports to be one thing, and it is for most of the story’s first 2/3rds. And then it becomes something else in the final 1/3rd. How you feel about the book will likely hinge on how you feel about that final 1/3rd. Let’s start with those first 2/3rds: It was okay. Betty, the protagonist, is a narcotics officer with the Dallas Police Department, and a New York transplant. Kent doesn’t waste a lot of time comparing the two different […]

Vacation Reading

All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka

The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos

Pickup At Union Station by Gary Reilly

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I got some great reading done while I was on vacation this past week. No knockouts but a nice range of good-to-good-enough books. Didn’t have time or resources to catalogue each individually so I’ll do small reviews of every book here. All I Did Was Shoot My Man I continue to be pleasantly mystified by Walter Mosley’s Leonid McGill series. These books are so odd, so transgressive considering what else is out there. He clearly has a gift for this kind of writing. The plot […]

Union Men

The Porkchoppers by Ross Thomas

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Anytime I read a Ross Thomas novel, I lament that he or someone like him is not around to capture these times. True, we live in an era of Peak Cynicism thanks to Trump and his gang. But it’s not like the late-60s/early-70s era which this novel takes place was some sort of political paradise either. I’ve been itching to read a Ross Thomas novel since Briarpatch came on air and decided to finally knock this one out as it’s been on my TBR list for a […]

Got The Power

The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch

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Breathe. I’m amused that Blake Crouch blurbed this book. I’ve read a few of his and I always like the concept more than the execution. This is the book he has always wanted to write. This is a legitimately great book. I usually don’t do genre mashups. Give me mystery (my favorite genre) or science fiction (an occasional dabble) but don’t give me both. The Inception-meets-True Detective tagline didn’t inspire me as much as it probably did others who tried this (and for what it’s worth, this […]

Rock On

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Even as I was prepped for it by all the hype, I didn’t expect to like Daisy Jones & The Six as much as I did. I devoured it in a day, feeling angry whenever I had to put it down. It starts off good, gets better, and brushes greatness near the end. The whole concept of a fictional musical biography would normally not hold much appeal. I find most musicians vain in the same way I suppose many non-sports fans find athletes vain. But everyone and […]



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