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:

The Irishman

I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt

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I Heard You Paint Houses is not a good book. It’s like reading a court transcript with historical footnoting, which made it a slog for me to read. Maybe Charles Brandt’s other books are better because he’s more interested in editorializing his subject’s reminiscence instead of just putting it out there with minimal context and background work. However, the book did what it needed to do for me. I’m a big Martin Scorsese fan and this is the inspiration for his newest movie The Irishman. Instead of looking […]

On The Avenue

Losers Live Longer by Russell Atwood

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Starting in September, I’ve resolved to read at least one Hard Case Crime novel per month. I collect Hard Case Crime books as a hobby, though there are getting harder and harder to find in used book stores. I always enjoy reading them but I sort of take it for granted that I can do so at anytime; knowing they’ll always be there. I had to force myself to read Casino Moon last month in order to check off a library bingo square. It wound up being […]

Everything Is Fine

The Warehouse by Rob Hart

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The best dystopias are the ones that take the world as is and tilt it just a little off its axis in a realistic way. Octavia Butler’s Parable duology took the circumstances of white supremacy and income inequality and added a heat-ravaged climate so devastating that it fractured global society. Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America took the anti-Semitism of the WASP-dominated 1930s United States and added the specter of Europe’s fascist politics made manifest in a Nazi sympathizer being elected President. Those two have always spoken to […]

Not Bad

Time to Murder and Create by Lawrence Block

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About ten years ago, I spent a summer working an internship and living with three other people. During the week, I bided time until the weekend, when I could go hang out with my then girlfriend, who lived about an hour away. But until then, there wasn’t much to do where I was at and the four of us were all broke interns. So I killed time reading and doing other stuff. The job I was at had a cart full of random books. One […]

War and Drugs

Every Man A Menace by Patrick Hoffman

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Patrick Hoffman’s Every Man a Menace is everything I want from a crime novel: suspenseful, dialogue that cuts yet isn’t cute, and an attempt at a realistic plot. It has all of those things and more. Writers can take note. A beloved work from the guys at The Watch podcast, where I’ve gotten many a good recommendation, this book never takes its foot off the gas. But not in a pulpy, cheap thrills kind of way. These characters are real, the circumstances are legit, and the atmosphere claustrophobic. […]

Trapped in Our Generation

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

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I’ve been following Jia Tolentino’s work since her time at Jezebel. Her New Yorker pieces are always must reads for me, even when they cover subjects I’m not interested in. She’s one of the few writers I’ve made the effort to see in person, catching her while on tour promoting this book. We chatted about our mutual love of Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game, which she had written about a few months earlier. It’s taken me awhile to understand why exactly I like her work, especially considering I don’t […]



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