Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About jeverett15

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39 years old. New Jersey resident. Fan of mystery novels, classic literature, and non-fiction about movies, television, sports, and American history.

jeverett15's Reviews:

Lavender Blue

The Long Lavender Look by John D. Macdonald

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Travis McGee and his friend Meyer are on their way back from a wedding late at night on a dark road when a strange young woman dashes in front of McGee’s beloved car. In his attempt to avoid her, McGee winds up putting his blue Rolls-Royce into the river and thus begins a bizarre series of events which leads to him and Meyer being arrested for Meyer. The set-up looks airtight but with the help of a high-powered lawyer who owes him a favor, McGee […]

Life is a Carnival

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

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William Lindsay Gresham explores the effects of greed on the soul through this story of Stanton “Stan” Carlisle, who starts the novel as an ambitious carnival magician and rises to incredible heights before a calamitous fall. Stan’s rise is based on his ability to charm people into giving him what he wants, but eventually his greed surpasses his talent. Starting out at the carnival, Stan discovers that the itinerant showbiz lifestyle agrees with him and he seems to have camaraderie with his fellow carny folk, […]

East Versus West

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré

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Alec Leamas is Britain’s chief intelligence officer in Berlin, but when his best German spy is blown and killed while trying to defect, Leamas quickly starts a remarkable downfall.  Reassigned to a desk job at the Circus (le Carré’s fictional branch of British intelligence) Leamas starts drinking heavily and racking up debts. When he is caught stealing funds from the office coffers, he is fired without much of a pension. With his reputation sullied he is reduced to working in a small library and living […]

Kelly Kelly Kelly

True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

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Peter Carey’s Booker Prize-winner, True History of the Kelly Gang, is presented as a collection of the writings of the famed Australian outlaw Ned Kelly. Largely uneducated, Kelly’s grasp of punctuation leaves a lot to be desired, but he tells his story with wit and verve. The style actually enhances the effect, as the reader often will have to re-read a passage to figure out where to insert the commas and periods in order to discern the meaning. Carey’s Kelly tells his tale from the […]

The Road More Traveled By

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

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Earlier this year I finally got around to reading Amor Towles’s second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow. I don’t know why I put it off for so long. It’s an engaging story replete with memorable characters and events, but even more, it’s a profound look at life and what makes it worth living. Despite the constraint of setting nearly the entire novel within a single hotel, Towles managed to portray a life full of love and friendship, heartbreak and redemption. It’s a major work of […]

Who’s the Crazy One Here?

Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson

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Hangsaman, with its odd title and even odder plot, feels like a close approximation of what it actually must be like to be insane. In free indirect discourse, Jackson takes the reader into the mind of 17-year-old Natalie Waite as she leaves home for the first time and starts studying at an all-girls college. Natalie is a creative, lonely girl with a domineering writer for a father and a mother who burdens Natalie with her many regrets in life. At a party thrown by her […]



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