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 Place That God Forgot

The Fourth Durango by Ross Thomas

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Read as part of CBR11 Bingo: summer read. I wasted too much of my life not reading Ross Thomas novels. I’ve been going through them the last two years and he’s become one of my all-time favorite writers. The “Elmore Leonard of politics” label is quite apt and The Fourth Durango, a tale packed with great characters and a fun premise, is one of the reasons why. The book itself is part mystery, part thinking person’s “thriller” and part excuse to get a bunch of people in […]

Keep A Diary

Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon's Downfall by Elizabeth Drew

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Read as part of CBR11 bingo: History Elizabeth Drew’s Washington Journal is making me wish I had kept a diary about the Trump era to document these last few years. I often talk about how the Trump Era is the “lol nothing matters” times of nihilism and obstinance. Seems like a lot of that was going on in 1973-1974. Drew covers the last year of Nixon’s presidency from the perspective of an insider journalist living in the hermetically sealed bubble of Washington, DC. She did a great […]

Write What You Know

My Dark Places by James Ellroy

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Read as part of CBR11Bingo: Biography/Memoir As I said a few weeks ago in my review of This Storm, I recently met James Ellroy at a book signing. I confess to feeling some intimidation. I’ve heard many stories over the years of Ellroy’s abrasive and forward personality in public. I shared in a social media group about getting ready to meet Ellroy and one guy shared a story about him fat shaming a kid at a book signing. Granted, it was hearsay but in line with […]

Finished a Great American Novel on Independence Day

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

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Read as part of CBR 11 Bingo: TBR Pile Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach is such a brilliant, beautiful book that I’m having difficulty conjuring up words to review it. It’s not leaving me breathless the way 2666 did, more so a state of stark admiration where I feel like words won’t do it justice. There are some writers who have a style that just works for the reader and I suppose Egan’s is one for me. Literature and general fiction are not really my bag so if you told […]

Police and Brutality

The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

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One of the best in an already great series, The Abominable Man grapples with a lot and spares no emotion. At the heart of this offering is what it means for a country to be policed. It’s a discussion that’s been had by a broader swath of Americans since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which though originally inspired by the murder of Trayvon Martin, galvanized the deaths of young black men at the hands of law enforcement. Police brutality in the States has its […]

Poetry for the non-fan

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

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(Trigger warning: this review will mention rape several times, though not in any graphic or descriptive way.) This is my annual foray into poetry thanks to my local library’s adult summer reading bingo challenge. Poetry is not at all my bag. I read one book a year and that’s it. As a friend of mine is fond of saying: I’m not trying to yuk anyone’s yum. But my joy as a reader comes from diving into a good story that will leave me challenged and, […]



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