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:

Don’t Let Them Eat Cake!

Arya Winters and the Tiramisu of Death by Amita Bryant

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Have been trying to get my hands on this one for a while, ever since reading Amita Murray’s piece on the need for sex in cozy mysteries (I completely agree!). While I enjoyed the book itself, I’m glad I didn’t pay for it. This is one that barely clears the 4-star threshold. I appreciate what Amita Murray is trying to do: give a refreshing, sexy take on cozy mysteries with a lead that’s younger and more misanthropic than your average blue haired Miss Marple. I […]

What A Ride

Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber by Mike Isaac

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Like a lot of folks, I was thrilled in the early-2010s when Uber became a prevalent ride share business on the open market. No longer waiting for over priced taxis, no longer being taken advantage of when I didn’t have exact change, no longer wondering if my driver was running late or had forgotten where I was altogether. It wasn’t until near the end of the decade when I, like many, became disillusioned with Uber. It was awful to hear of their labor exploitation, the […]

Last Call

The Cocktail Waitress by James M. Cain

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This month’s Hard Case Crime was a real winner. The kind of book I wish they could find and/or publish more often. Of course, unpublished works from crime masters aren’t exactly lying around waiting. Charles Ardai and co. lucked out when some mutual connects hooked them up with the last James Cain manuscript, one that had never seen the light of day. Cain is often considered part of the Hardboiled Trinity, along with Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Yet he didn’t write the kind of […]

En Garde!

The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager

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I got a familiar feeling when I read this, like I had read something like it before. So I looked up the writer’s name and sure enough, he wrote another, similar book about a crime involving French aristocracy. Blood Royal was a good enough book but it focused less on the crime and more on the budding Civil War in France over the death of Louis X. It dragged the story down and while it was readable, it wasn’t necessarily good. This one avoids that mistake. […]

Fanning Out

Fan Club by Erin Mayer

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This is a book that I enjoyed in stretches but mostly left me frustrated. I think I have a thing for millennial women writing social/patriarchal mystery/thrillers set in New York City. Tara Isabelle Burton. Andrea Baartz. I tend to like these books more than others do. It’s not my favorite genre but it’s one I apparently enjoy. This book can be slotted into it. It works as a deconstruction and examination of the cultish nature of fandom. The nameless protagonist* gets drawn into this clique […]

More Than A Body

Mean...Moody...Magnificent!: Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend by Christina Rice

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When reading Karina Longworth’s Howard Hughes book, I came away wanting to learn more about Jane Russell. She seemed like a fish-out-of-water person from the era: a sexpot who rejected the label, a right-wing Christian who stuck to her views, a living contradiction who leaned into her personality. Researching when I was done, I was surprised to find that the only book on Russell was her autobiography, published in the 1980s. Months later, I was at the library and remembered, at last, to pick it […]



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