Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Instagram
  3. Follow us on Bluesky
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • Getting Started in CBR17
    • Rules of Respect
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
    • About Cannonball Read
  • Our Team
    • The CBR Team
    • Leaderboard
    • Recent Comments
    • Participant Interviews
    • Cannonballer Location Maps
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
    • Star Ratings
    • Featured Review Archive
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • Donate
    • CBR Merchandise
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Suggest a Review
    • 2025 Registration
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Social Media

About Jake

CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR14 Bingo Badges
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR17 Levels

I love reading! (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Jake's Quick Questions interview.)

Jake's Reviews:

Jersey Girl

Death of a Dancing Queen by Kimberly G. Giarratano

March 13, 2023 by Jake Leave a Comment

CW: This book has a tragic trans angle. I won’t spoil how and while I think the writer handled it well enough, it still touches on some worn tropes that could be hard for some. Please be warned. They say that if you like to write, write a book you’d want to read. I had no hand in writing Death of a Dancing Queen, obviously, but by-and-large this is a book I’d want to write: interesting PI character, well-described setting, villains of both the regular- and underworlds respectively. […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Billie Levine, Death of a Dancing Queen, Kimberly G. Giarratano, mystery, new jersey

Jake's CBR15 Review No:29 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Billie Levine, Death of a Dancing Queen, Kimberly G. Giarratano, mystery, new jersey ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Nun of the Above

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

March 6, 2023 by Jake 3 Comments

As readers, we all dream of books that are specifically written for us. Certainly, we sometimes like to be challenged and pulled out of our comfort zone. But most of the time, we sit around asking questions like: Man, I wish someone would write a book in the hardboiled vein of a badass Catholic nun trying to solve a mystery in sun soaked New Orleans. Or words to that effect. Anyway, yes, Margot Douiahy wrote a book that was basically fine tuned to someone who likes the […]

Filed Under: Mystery Tagged With: LGBTQIA, Margot Douaihy, mystery, New Orleans, nuns, Religion, Roman Catholicism, Scorched Grace

Jake's CBR15 Review No:28 · Genres: Mystery · Tags: LGBTQIA, Margot Douaihy, mystery, New Orleans, nuns, Religion, Roman Catholicism, Scorched Grace ·
Rating:
· 3 Comments

Successionary

Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy by James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams

March 1, 2023 by Jake Leave a Comment

Look, I’m simple: if you bill a book as a “non-fictional Succession,” load it with family drama and a bunch of wannabe Richard IIIs and Lady Macbeths, and put billions of dollars and a major media or financial empire at stake, I’m absolutely going to devour it. This is no exception. As to the quality of the book, it’s fine. Quite good at times. James B. Stewart wrote the magnum opus of these kinds of books in Disneywar and I was kind of expecting that. But it didn’t […]

Filed Under: Non-Fiction Tagged With: CBS, James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams, Les Moonves, Media, Sumner Redstone, true crime, Unscripted, Viacom

Jake's CBR15 Review No:27 · Genres: Non-Fiction · Tags: CBS, James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams, Les Moonves, Media, Sumner Redstone, true crime, Unscripted, Viacom ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

February 2023 Leftovers

Dead Wind by Tessa Wegert

One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two Goats, and the Era That Remade the World's Game by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz

The Title: The Story of the First Division by Scott Murray

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson

Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie

The Fiancée by Kate White

The Guns of Heaven by Pete Hamill

February 28, 2023 by Jake Leave a Comment

Hey on the last day of the month, it finally snowed in New York! Huzzah! Dead Wind**** I can’t talk about why I like this book without even the mildest of spoilers if you’ve been following the series. So I’ll talk about what I appreciate. I’ve been in an on-and-off reading slump the last two months. It’s been hard to finish stuff. Tessa Wegert’s Shana Merchant series really feels like the exception to the rule. I like her writing, her pacing, her protagonist. All good. One […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: #IRA, agatha christie, Anthony Horowitz, Cristiano Ronaldo, Dead Wind, England, English football, evil under the sun, FC Barcelona, hard case crime, Hawthorne and Horowitz, Hercule Poirot, Inspector Montalbano, Ireland, Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, karen m mcmanus, kate white, Lionel Messi, maureen johnson, Messi vs. Ronaldo, mystery, New York (State), New York City, one of us is lying, Pete Hamill, Real Madrid, Scott Murray, Shana Merchant, Sicily, Soccer, sports, Tessa Wegert, The Fiancée, The Guns of Heaven, The Sentence is Death, the shape of water, The Title, the vanishing stair, thriller, truly devious, Vermont, Young Adult

Jake's CBR15 Review No:26 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: #IRA, agatha christie, Anthony Horowitz, Cristiano Ronaldo, Dead Wind, England, English football, evil under the sun, FC Barcelona, hard case crime, Hawthorne and Horowitz, Hercule Poirot, Inspector Montalbano, Ireland, Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, karen m mcmanus, kate white, Lionel Messi, maureen johnson, Messi vs. Ronaldo, mystery, New York (State), New York City, one of us is lying, Pete Hamill, Real Madrid, Scott Murray, Shana Merchant, Sicily, Soccer, sports, Tessa Wegert, The Fiancée, The Guns of Heaven, The Sentence is Death, the shape of water, The Title, the vanishing stair, thriller, truly devious, Vermont, Young Adult ·
· 0 Comments

Jump Up and Feel Down

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

February 27, 2023 by Jake Leave a Comment

Reading about the rise and fall of the Sacklers, I kept thinking about the futurism of the 1950s. I had been to Futureland in Disney this past fall and it reminded me how obsessed people were in the post-war world with discovering things that dramatically enhanced life. This isn’t a bad sentiment to have, I suppose. I’d love nothing more than a robot butler to cook my food and clean up after me. But how does one deal with pain? It calls to mind Linda […]

Filed Under: Biography/Memoir, Non-Fiction Tagged With: Empire of Pain, opioid crisis, oxycontin, Patrick Radden Keefe, sackler family, true crime

Jake's CBR15 Review No:17 · Genres: Biography/Memoir, Non-Fiction · Tags: Empire of Pain, opioid crisis, oxycontin, Patrick Radden Keefe, sackler family, true crime ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Spain and Not Plain

The Queen of the South by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

February 12, 2023 by Jake Leave a Comment

I’ve been slumping lately due to stress at work and have mostly been hewing to light fiction (see Daisy Darker). I didn’t expect to connect with Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s literary crime novel when cycling through what I wanted to read next but the writing hooked me from page one and away we went. This is an interesting book. It’s good, very good. I’m not sure it’s great but I don’t want to dwell on that. I’ll focus on what I liked: it’s absolutely a retelling in some […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Arturo Perez-Reverte, crime, Drug War, mexico, Spain, The Queen of the South

Jake's CBR15 Review No:16 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Arturo Perez-Reverte, crime, Drug War, mexico, Spain, The Queen of the South ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • …
  • 142
  • Next Page »


Recent Comments

  • Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
  • Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
  • Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
  • Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
  • Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.
See More Recent Comments »

Support Our Mission

  • Support Our Mission: Donate Today!
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo

The reviews and comments posted on this site reflect the opinions of individual posters and do not reflect the views of Cannonball Read.

© 2025 Cannonball Read Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) | Log in