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:

Northern Exposure

Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson

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  The first few chapters of this book made me groan because they read like an airport paperback thriller. Nothing against that genre, it’s just not for me. I thought about quitting the book. But I stuck with it and I’m glad I did. It ended up being sort of a Agatha Christie tribute: a series of murders and unexplained events happening in a sleepy town where everybody knows everyone, only the town is perpetually covered in snow because it’s in the northernmost point of […]

A Knight’s Tale

The Firedrake by Cecilia Holland

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Read as part of cbr11 bingo: Travel. I can’t remember on what suggested list I first heard of Cecilia Holland’s The Firedrake. It was probably when I was searching for stuff related to William the Conqueror. There are oceans of works that cover the Tudor Kings and the Wars of the Roses, but very few touch upon the birth of the English monarchy. The story of William’s rise is told from the perspective of Laeghaire, a wandering Irish mercenary knight. Holland does a great job of making the […]

Greed Is In

Dear Money by Martha McPhee

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Read as part of CBR11 Bingo: Re-telling of a classic. The book was inspired by “Pygmalion.” This book is a mess but it is a very entertaining mess. It’s basically The Big Short filtered through the lens of a needy, greedy Manhattan mom. Perhaps because of my enduring love for Manhattan, I never seem to tire of New York City tales. Even ones that are as bleak and insufferable as this one. I found myself relating to India more than I would have liked. Sure, she has […]

Patsy

Libra by Don DeLillo

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Read as part of CBR11 Bingo: Birthday. Lee Harvey Oswald’s birthday was October 18 (making him a libra, hence the title!). Two things are common with both mass shooters and high profile assassins: 1. They are almost always male. 2. They almost always have some sort of personality disorder which makes it difficult for them to fit into polite society. Fringe groups prey on these kinds of people. They suck their soul to the marrow, leave nothing left, and abandon them when their presence becomes an inconvenience. […]

Tartan Noir

Laidlaw by William McIlvanney

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Read as part of CBR11 Bingo: First in a series. This is perhaps the best 3-star book I’ve ever read. A quick explanation of my star system: 5 I give out semi-frequently to books I genuinely consider to be great. I’m not snobby with it, plenty of 5 star books are better than others but it’s my ratings system and I can do what I want. 4 is my most frequently distributed number, that’s for books that simply rise to the level of good. 3 […]

In A Hopeless Place

The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem

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Read as part of CBR11 Bingo: Listicle. “20 Best Crime Novels of 2018” -crimereads.com It’s interesting to me that Jonathan Lethem’s The Feral Detective made CrimeReads.com’s list of 20 best crime novels of 2018 considering how widely panned it was. Many reviewers said some variety of “How can the man who wrote Motherless Brooklyn produce such dreck?” I think such sentiment comes with unfortunately high expectations. I read Motherless Brooklyn earlier this year. It was excellent, definitely one of the best things I read in 2019. And it made me want […]



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