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:

We Need Ross Thomas For These Times

Out on the Rim by Ross Thomas

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Headline really says it all but I suppose I need to explain why. I watched Vice today and it had to be one of the most bleak, cynical movies I’ve ever seen. It was excellent. And it reminded me of why I need Ross Thomas novels in my life, anytime really but especially now…to ward off the creeping nihilism that comes from American politics. Thomas is a cynic too but he doesn’t let that get in the way of entertainment. His books are fun and none perhaps […]

Jake’s Best of 2018

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Coming at you live from…my house…is my personal Oscars of every year, the Best Books I Read This Year Awards! For the first time ever, posted on Cannonball Read. I’ll follow the same format as I did last year: will post the 10 best non-fiction books in no particular order, then do the honorable mention and top-10 best in reverse order. I’ll only say something if I feel I have something unique to say about the book, i.e. something that is still on my mind […]

An Alluring Series

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Will Leitch is one of my favorite writers. He covers sports in word form and movies on the Grierson & Leitch podcast. All year long, he has grappled with is love for the Wes Anderson movie Isle of Dogs, which is set in Japan and has many references to famed director Akira Kurosawa but whose characters are voiced mostly by white people. The movie has been deemed (accurately in my estimation) to be culturally appropriated. I’m not one for winning “Who’s the most woke white person?” contests. […]

To Have and Have Not

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Black Money was one of the first books I read after the 2016 election. At the time, I was still making my way through the Lew Archer series. Like many people horrified at the election’s results, my mind was in a fog and I came to Black Money simply because it was the next book up. Although my brief Goodreads review says I liked it and thought it one of the best in the Archer series, I retain little memory of it given the time in which it […]

Expectations Mostly Met

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Movies and books share many obvious differences but what’s especially difficult for the reader versus the cinephile is there aren’t nearly as many movies as there are books. You’d have to practically live under a rock not to know about films like Aquaman and Vice premiering close to or on Christmas, and even if you want to find info non-blockbuster popular indy types like The Favourite, the internet makes that relatively easy. Whereas with books, there are thousands (millions?) that get released yearly throughout a wide range of genres and if […]

100% True to the Spirit of the Show

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While I wouldn’t say I’m a “Marshmallow” per se, I do like the Veronica Mars tv series. The first season is one of my all-time favorite seasons of a show. I didn’t enjoy number two as much for spoilery reasons but it wasn’t bad and the third season is better than it’s reputation. The movie is fun. I’m not one for high school melodramas but Rob Thomas and team get the noir/mystery aspects of the show down well and Kristen Bell is great as Veronica, the evolutionary […]



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