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:

Less is more…. I’m so sorry, I just couldn’t help myself.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

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I saw that Less won the Pulitzer Prize and was available at my library so I checked it out.  The award is the ONLY thing I knew about the book when I began reading it. Less is about Andrew Less, a writer about to turn fifty and going through some sort of mid-life crisis.  His younger, on again/off again boyfriend is getting married and his book is rejected by his publisher.  He uses the opportunity to accept offers that he has to travel the world […]

Some non-Sandman Slim from Richard Kadrey

The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey

Dead Set by Richard Kadrey

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I am a big fan of the Sandman Slim series, especially the narration by MacLeod Andrews who just NAILS the character.  Thus, I tried some of the author’s other books, The Grand Dark and Dead Set.  I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect and yet I feel that my expectations were met.  Both books deal with grim worlds and the occult.  I think I could identify them as Kadrey books even without knowing, but that might be some really strong hindsight bias. I read The […]

The Remembrance of Earth’s Past Trilogy – well, books 2 and 3

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

Death's End by Cixin Liu

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The first book in the series, The Three-Body Problem, is one of the most popular books in Chinese according to wikipedia.  The Three-Body Problem was the first Asian novel to win the Hugo Award for best novel.  I read it at the end of last year and waited a few months for the next two to become available.  I was able to listen to books 2 and 3 back-to-back which was really nice. So this trilogy is science fiction, but what I would consider hard-SF. […]

Beautiful and Tragic

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

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I chose to read this book because I saw it on the to-read list of a baseball player I really like, Sean Doolittle.  Doolittle is a very good player and someone who is known for being an even better person.  He is also considered one of the most, let’s say intellectual, players in baseball and maybe sports as a whole.  He attended the University of Virginia, in my home state, so I’ve always felt an affinity for Doolittle.  He posted a picture of his current […]

The John Masterson Trilogy or A Prepper’s Dream

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

One Year After by William R. Forstchen

The Final Day by William R. Forstchen

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TL:DR **I enjoyed the series but I cannot separate it from the virtue-signaling inherent in the narrative.** I have many thoughts about this series, as a whole and individually.  First, I read this because two different friends just read it and loved it.  While both friends are in the military, once is left leaning and the other leans right.  That is an important part of this because I was very turned off by the front over which told me that the introduction was written by […]

THIS is my jam!

The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism by Steve Kornacki

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I became aware of the author, Steve Kornacki, on election night 2016.  He was the very excited NBC analyst covering the races on the “big board” all night.  Steve was the guy who would zoom in on a state and recall, by district or city, where votes were likely coming or outstanding.  I tried for years to deny my love of politics and my innate desire to be a full-on political junkie and I found a kindred spirit in Steve Kornacki.  I started following him […]



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