Jake – Page 68 – Cannonball Read 17

Trump’s Bunker

Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency by Michael Wolff

July 25, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

Large parts of this book, I really enjoyed. For those of us made miserable by the 4-year mistake that was the Donald Trump presidency, there’s nothing better than seeing him flail about helplessly, our febrile democratic checks finally providing an exit ramp to this nightmare. I had always eschewed Trump/Nazi comparisons, mainly because they detract from the awfulness of American history in favor of grafting on another racist society. But if there’s one thing I have found similar from reading The Rise and Fall of the […]

Braveheart

Death of a Gossip by M.C. Beaton

February's Son by Alan Parks

July 22, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

By coincidence, I just finished two different mysteries set in Scotland. Both were okay, both should have been better, both merit three stars, and I have more to say about one than the other… Death of a Gossip It’s fine for what it is: a Scottish cozy mystery Agatha Christie rip off. But it spends way too much time on the boring, awful side characters and not nearly enough time on the wonderfully cantankerous Hamish MacBeth. February’s Son Cn. Abuse, horrible depictions of […]

To Play the King

King Richard: Nixon and Watergate, An American Tragedy by Michael Dobbs

July 20, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

The Trump era made me a Watergate junkie. It’s as simple as that. If there’s a new book on Watergate, I’m reading it. I’ve become fascinated with the twisted story of Nixon and his cronies, especially how power can imbue one with a sense of dignity and grace, at least in the public eye. Most of us need to go to bed at night assuming our leaders are competent adults who wouldn’t hurt a fly unless it was absolutely necessary and who have it all […]

The Chase Is On

The Heathens by Ace Atkins

July 19, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

Ace Atkins spent the first ten books of his Quinn Colson series meticulously building up a Walking Tall-like story, parsing out a mythos of fictional Tibbehah County and developing the characters. He dialed it up to a boil in book ten, with big payoffs. Although the stakes are still high for this one, it feels like the beginning of a denouement. Yeah there’s still some background as a player from the past comes back to haunt things in the troubled corner of northern Mississippi. But beyond […]

Body Horror

The Book of Revelation by Rupert Thomson

July 18, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

CN: rape, sexual assault, kidnapping. Seriously, this book is very triggering. I remember picking this book up randomly one day in a book store, thinking it was about religion. I cringed when I saw the subject matter: an attractive man kidnapped and held against his will, subject to torture and sexual menace at the hands of women. I looked it up on Goodreads and found it wasn’t considered grindhouse shock shlock, but a literary meditation on gender and power dynamics. I wasn’t confident to buy […]

In A Foreign Field

Missionaries by Phil Klay

July 15, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

I usually enjoy former President Barack Obama’s recommended reading lists but, after reading Missionaries, I confess that its presence on his list kind of bugs me. This book is, among other things, a strong handed critique of borderless imperial war and I think it takes a certain kind of cynicism to set that aside and appreciate it solely on its literary value. Because, damn, this book is cynical. How could it not be? Frankly, I knew little about Colombia until reading it. I knew Simón Bolivar liberated it […]

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.

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