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:

Giving Me the Feelings I Express

The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks

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I had a great professor in Seminary who I felt came up short in one regard. She taught our Spiritual Care class and in her lecture on masculinity, she had us watch a video of a movie, the title of which I can’t remember. In it, a deadbeat dad played by (I think) Nick Nolte is depicted in a scene as being unable to relate to his young daughter and getting angry at her when she suggests she wants to see her mother. I cannot […]

In Plain Sight

I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story by Hank Aaron

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Years ago, I used to watch the painfully obnoxious sports commentary show Around the Horn while waiting for Tony and Mike to duke it out on Pardon the Interruption. ATH has since incorporated much better guests, and host Tony Reali is a prince of a guy, but at the time, it was just a bunch of white guys whining about Barry Bonds and tongue bathing Brett Favre. During yet another Bonds session, one of the guys, I think it was Bill Plaschke, contrasted Bonds with Hank Aaron, the man […]

Reading, Reading, Reading, RAWHIDE!

The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

The Dame by Richard Stark

Tricky by Josh Stallings

Quarry's Deal by Max Alan Collins

The Plea by Steve Cavanagh

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I read a lot last week but also had a busy week at work (a good busy). Every time I tried to write a review on one of these books, all of them good, I just didn’t have the time or energy. So here’s a big update dump of the stuff I read in the last week and I’d be glad to tease them out more in the comments if anyone is curious… “The True History of the Kelly Gang” I enjoyed large parts of […]

Lawyer Stuff

The Defense by Steve Cavanagh

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I saw this laughable image/tweet in the time I was reading the book and since it’s close to the plot summary, I figured I’d bless y’all with it. There’s a certain condescension amongst book readers as to how seriously they should take page-turning novels. I often hear the phrase “Turn off your brain for this one!” While there may be some truth to it, most fiction requires elaborations and expansions of the truth. You could read something like The Defense and grouse about how something like that […]

World Needs Bad Men

Corruption City by Horace McCoy

Blood on the Moon by James Ellroy

L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy

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I don’t necessarily agree with the title, which comes from the famous exchange from season one of the TV show True Detective. But since it’s thematic of the three books I read recently, I decided to go with it. I hate coming up with titles. Corruption City ***** A fun crime tale that should have been better. McCoy lays out a good story but halfway through, it’s like an editor reminded him it’s a pulp novel so he has to take shortcuts. Still an entertaining tale. McCoy might […]

The Secret History

We Keep The Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper

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We Keep the Dead Close is not a great example of true crime fiction and in lesser hands, it would not be a good book period. Becky Cooper leaves no stone unturned, no archaeological dig unexcavated in getting to the bottom of Jane Britton’s murder. That part is familiar. But she is also taking a deeper look at the narratives we tell ourselves to get through the day and understand the world. Which is a broader point to make, though she makes it well. I can’t […]



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