Jake – Page 80 – Cannonball Read 17

The Gentleman Gangster

Handsome Johnny: The Life and Death of Johnny Rosselli: Gentleman Gangster, Hollywood Producer, CIA Assassin by Lee Server

January 15, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

Ever since I read Don Winslow’s The Winter of Frankie Machine last year, I’ve been obsessed with SoCal mobster tales. Martin Scorsese came close to adapting Frankie Machine before he was seduced by Charles Brandt’s inferior I Heard You Paint Houses, which he turned into The Irishman. If Scorsese had wanted to do a lion-in-winter mafia tale, I wish he had done Frankie or a movie on Rosselli’s life. Both of which are more interesting than another northeastern gangster story. Lee Server is an expert on pop history, with bios of Ava Gardner and […]

This Year’s Girl

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

January 13, 2021 by Jake 1 Comment

Early on in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I was getting frustrated. I wanted to know why Taylor Jenkins Reid was using the journalist framing device to extract such detail around the curiosity of a multiple married woman. Don’t get me wrong; I know celebrity relationships are a constant source of fascination with folks. But I just didn’t feel like it made for an interesting story. I wanted to read about this fictional Evelyn Hugo staring in fictional movies, getting into fictional Hollywood feuds, etc. And […]

Together We Cry

Black Dahlia, Red Rose: The Crime, Corruption, and Cover-Up of America's Greatest Unsolved Murder by Piu Marie Eatwell

January 11, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

As much as I love Los Angeles stories and true crime tales, I’ve long avoided reading about the murder of Elizabeth Short. I did read James Ellroy’s fictional take and watch I Am The Night but both of those were kind of pop pulpy examinations with little basis in reality geared for entertainment. The main reason I’ve avoided it is I don’t find the murder and brutality of white women as fascinating as others, particularly white men, seem to do. I know there are many psychological […]

Dodger Blues

Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between by Eric Nusbaum

January 7, 2021 by Jake 2 Comments

If you’re a sports fan with a social conscience, you’ve probably had that moment where you realize that sports, professional and collegiate, are a labor-exploiting racist racket. It’s comparable to being a kid and realizing Santa Claus isn’t real. I’ve had those moments too, long before the backlash to Colin Kaepernick’s protest or seeing the words “Black Lives Matter” on a basketball court. Eric Nusbaum, a sports fan like me, had it when he was a kid, when an octogenarian former activist and HUAC victim […]

Joyeux Noël

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

January 3, 2021 by Jake 7 Comments

There’s 12 days of Christmas, folks. We all have through January 6th to celebrate. So I got my holiday reading in just under the wire. Yay me. Been meaning to return to the Inspector Gamache series after enjoying the first book. The women from my crime fiction class swear to it and I can see why. It’s an engaging mystery series that has the elements of a cozy but is a little more hardened. Three Pines is a charming place and the people all seem […]

50 Shades of 9/11

Small Town by Lawrence Block

January 2, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

I don’t quite know what to make of Lawrence Block’s Small Town. On the one hand, Block is trying to catch the spirit of the City in the months following 9/11. The story follows a cast of characters: a cop, a criminal, and a few in between, whose lives converge due to a series of murders that shake a still shaken city. Lawrence Block is one of New York City’s great poet laureates, and I appreciate what he is trying to do with the story, even […]

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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