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:

He Is Your Father

Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right by Walter Mosley

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Walter Mosley has two idiosyncratic mystery series set in New York City: Leonid McGill and King Oliver. I’ve written before about my fondness for the McGill series. They’re not significantly different from the King Oliver books but I like how Leonid is a former crime fixer who is trying to do right in a neo-surrealist Manhattan. Oliver’s story is interesting but I don’t find the character as compelling. That changed a bit with this one. Amidst several plots, King has to try and find his […]

They Are Not All Answered

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

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When this book is rolling, it’s a really good book. When it stops to pause to consider how good of a book it is, it comes off as pretentious. I know that sounds ridiculous but that’s how this one made me feel. It took me multiple tries to get into this one but I kept coming back to it as I knew eventually I’d catch on to what Makkai is doing. And once I did, I mostly enjoyed the ride. This one is best read […]

Enemy Friends

The Why Is Everything: A Story of Football, Rivalry, and Revolution by Michael Silver

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As a sports fan, I often lament at the dearth of quality books on the subject. While there are gems like Ball Four, many sports books are corny, half-baked “tales of the locker room,” anodyne autobiographies, and team recaps that don’t reveal anything new. A truly good sports book is a pearl-in-the-oyster. And when you find it, you don’t want to let it go. This is one such book. No it doesn’t stand there with the greats but it’s a fascinating look at Kyle Shanahan’s story […]

Irish Goodbye

Everybody Dies by Lawrence Block

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When I first read Everybody Dies a few years ago, I found it disappointing. Matt partnering with his gangster friend Mick Ballou sounded like fun but the execution was meh. Block used it as an excuse to kill off a lit of auxiliary characters from previous books, while the killer himself wasn’t especially interesting and I didn’t feel like I understood Ballou’s character more than I already did. So I wasn’t really jazzed to go back to it for my Scudder re-read, which is almost complete. But […]

What is Yours?

Penance by Eliza Clark

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Penance is an interesting book. When I started it, I thought it’d be one of the best things I read this year: a clever dissection of true crime fandom. And by the end, I couldn’t wait to be done. Even the clever ending didn’t spruce it up for me. I appreciate what Eliza Clark is trying to do: expand on a crime to look at the broader story through the lens of a journalist who we know from the start is unreliable, which requires we approach […]

Final 2024 Leftovers

1876 by Gore Vidal

Joe Country by Mick Herron

James by Percival Everett

Slough House by Mick Herron

Kiss Her Goodbye by Allan Guthrie

The Contemplative Tarot: A Christian Introduction to the cards by Brittany Muller

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Hope everyone had a wonderful 2024. Remember that while we can’t control the horrors of the world, there is joy to be found in the presence of those we love. 1876**** Didn’t hit as hard as Burr; Burr’s presence was the center of the story that made it go, whereas this book wants to highlight every major player in the 1876 election. But Vidal does a good job of evoking the atmosphere of the time: the unapologetic corruption, the paranoia of another war and the […]



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