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:

Great Bookend for The Guns of August

Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan

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 Shout out to faintingviolet and JenK for the EXCELLENT recommendation.  They recommended this one after I read The Guns of August last year. Paris 1919 is an account of all the events that took place after the armistice that ended WWI through the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. MacMillan crafts the narrative around the three major figures and personalities at the conference: US President Woodrow Wilson, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and French President Georges Clemenceau and seeks to prove that the Treaty […]

What a wild and crazy guy

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

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I love Steve Martin.  The first time my wife visited my house when we were dating, we watched The Jerk.  He is a damn national treasure.  I was interested in the reading this book for some time now, six years according to Goodreads, and it was not quite what I was expecting and yet I loved it all the same. This book seemed almost like Martin wrote it reluctantly and somehow I enjoyed that.  I suppose I expected Born Standing Up to be a typical […]

Some Early Steinbeck

The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck

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If you have noticed a lot of Steinbeck reviews the last few months, that’s on me.  I currently live in the Monterey Bay Area and decided that while I live here, I should read the works of the man who was so inspired by this place.  Steinbeck is from Salinas, CA, the largest city in the area but many of his books take place in and around the county.  The famous Cannery Row of Monterey is actually named for his book, which popularized the nickname […]

S.O.S.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

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Dead Wake is a non-fiction account of what happened to the Lusitania, the ocean liner sunk by a German u-boat that led to the the United States joining WWI.  That was the extent of my knowledge about the topic prior to this book.  I remember learning about the sinking of the Lusitania in high school but like most US history classes, we were racing through the 20th century at the end of the school year so it was a footnote, along with the Zimmerman Telegram […]

He’s Running, but also, Let’s Fight!!! – aka I wrote 1000+ words because I hated it

The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis—and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance by Ben Sasse

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Oh boy! I have so many thoughts that I took notes on the things I wanted to write about for this one.  Let’s do this: I read this book because I know a little bit about Senator Sasse.  I knew he has a Ph.D in history from Yale and was a university president all before becoming a senator at age 41.  I knew he was a Republican who was savvy on social media, specifically Twitter.  He first gained notoriety, to me at least, by penning […]

Professional Reading #1

It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell & Tony Koltz

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It Worked for Me is a collection of about 30 vignettes and stories intended to offer leadership advice from one of America’s most famous military leaders of the last 35 years.  I think it does that and does it well.  Powell reflects on a life of service, both military and civilian, and recounts instances when he made decisions and describes the generalized thoughts and ideas that led to the choices he made. This book, let’s call it a memoir, feels quite genuine and honest but […]



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