Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Jake's Reviews:

Power Down

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind

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Years ago, I half-read something by Malcolm Gladwell about how he wasn’t sure that the Enron execs did anything wrong. Gladwell’s thing is not my thing; he’s the kind of faux intellectual others love that I find empty and lacking. But at the time, having no idea what actually brought Enron down, I figured he might be on to something. Well he wasn’t. Malcolm Gladwell is wrong again. Also, the things rich white men get away with… I am a white man, not rich by […]

Scandal

Crooked:The Roaring '20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal by Nathan Masters

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As always, I renew my objection that there aren’t more books about the Warren Harding administration. People write off Harding as yet another dull mediocre white guy who briefly served in office before dying. But there’s more! Harding’s time was fascinating, both during and after his death. Ludicrously corrupt politics amidst the background of the Roaring 20s? Come on, now. Anyway, I was hoping this would cover Harding more but instead, it focused on Harry Daugherty and his dirty deeds. And that’s fine. It was […]

The Cabin in the Woods

The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman

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I’ve written before about my reading journey with Laura Lippman. I loved the Tess Monaghan series for its local color, less so for Tess.* Lippman had better books in her and as she branched out to standalone works, her talent shone. She does excellent character-based crime tales with enough local flavor to fill in blanks but not so much that you suffocate on it. This is one of her early stand-alone works. I’m not sure why I’ve never read it but I’m glad I did […]

By Order of the Pious Bleeping Men!

Priest of Bones by Peter McLean

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I think Peter McLean might owe the Peaky Blinders creators some money. To be clear: I don’t mind! I like Peaky Blinders. I found this book on a list of books to read if you like Peaky Blinders. This is absolutely Peaky Blinders set in a fantasy world. Brothers running a gang in a crap part of a crap city. Men returning from war ridden with PTSD. A nosy aunt who tries to keep the business afloat. A rival gang vying for control of the […]

It’s All We Need

All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

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bell hooks’ The Will to Change wasn’t just a good book in a sense that books can be quantified in such a manner. It was one that shifted my paradigm and also affirmed me in so many ways. As lauded as that one is, All About Love is considered her seminal text and is, to borrow a phrase from current parlance, having a moment. It’s been largely reissued and reintroduced to a new generation of readers. Once I got over what I wanted it to be and appreciated it […]

All in…

The Family by Naomi Krupitsky

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This book has received a lot of comparisons to Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend and the other works in that series. Let me clarify: I’ve tried to read Ferrante multiple times and just can’t land with her writing. I don’t know what it is. It’s got nothing to do with my months-long slump; I can’t connect with it. So I’ve heard a lot of people dismiss The Family because it’s a comparison that doesn’t measure up for them. If you’re a big Ferrante fan, you should know that going […]



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