Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About thewheelbarrow

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I'm a 41yo father of three. My goal is to write as I read. Like it is every year.

thewheelbarrow's Reviews:

The Munroe Doctrine

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe

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When I was in grad school, most of my professors used xkcd comics at some point.  I’m pretty sure I understand p-values because of this strip. My friend told me about a book by “that stick figure comic guy from class” so I checked it out. That was What If? by Randall Munroe. What If? is a book that provides real scientific and mathematic answers to absolutely absurd, but fun questions.  Questions like: How many fireflies would it take to match the brightness of the […]

The Candice Millard Collection

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard

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I think it was the Reader Harder 2018 Challenge that called for reading a book by a female historian. It may also have been a twitter discussion about female historians but in either event I realized that of all the historical books I’ve read, very few have been written by women.  I wanted to remedy that.  Last year, or earlier this year as they run together, I read The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman.  Then someone here, maybe Jen K., recommended Paris 1919 by […]

The world is full of garbage people.

The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

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So, I don’t mean the world is full of people made of garbage.  I mean that many human beings, too many (though that is probably subjective), are living embodiments of Mos Eisely, wretched hives of scum and villainy.  These two books by Michael Lewis are about those people. The Big Short, now a movie that I have not seen, is about the people who, in a way, foresaw the financial recession of 2008 and profited from it.  Immensely.  Funny though, those people are not the […]

Arguably, America’s Greatest General

George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L. Roll

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I remember learning about the Marshall Plan in AP US History class and how critical it was to repairing the world after WWII. I did not realize until years later that General George C. Marshall was individual who lent his name to the plan. I’ve been in the Army for thirteen years, as of yesterday, and I’ve developed opinions on many famous generals from our history. Most of those opinions are demonstrably leery of anyone who receives unadulterated hero worship. I am not a fan […]

Takeshi Kovacs #2 & #3

Broken Angles by Richard K. Morgan

Woken Furies by Richard K. Morgan

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These are the second and third books of the Takeshi Kovacs series. The first is Altered Carbon which shares its name with the show upon which it is based. In these two books, we follow the exploits of Takeshi Kovacs, ex-U.N. Envoy, as he (mostly) mercenaries his way through the galaxy. He re-sleeves for each adventure and is the gritty, hard-boiled detective/hired gun. If you are unfamiliar with the first book or the show, human consciousness is transferrable from body to body and is stored […]

The Revolutionary War in Three Volumes

Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown by Nathaniel Philbrick

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***This is a truly terrible review of three books.  If you like the Revolutionary War, read them.*** I first learned about Nathaniel Philbrick while doing research for a presentation on one of the commanders of the Battle of Bunker Hill, COL William Prescott.  While I planned to read the book then, I just did what most people do while preparing a presentation, I read only the things that were super relevant to the project.  I told myself for years that I would come back to […]



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