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:

Some Steinbeck Non-Fiction

Once There Was a War by John Steinbeck

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I read this one in February when I stopped writing reviews immediately after reading a book. I do have a slightly valid reason for this delay, my wife gave birth to our youngest son. As one can imagine, my reading slowed to just audiobooks to and from work and I stopped writing reviews almost completely. This was in addition to trying to finish my thesis. It was a stressful time and most of it was a blur. Unfortunately, that means that I don’t remember Once […]

I’d Watch This

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (The Tales of Dunk and Egg #1-3) by George R.R. Martin

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I started reading this to prepare myself for the final season of the show.  I’d previously read the first of the three short stories but I re-read it as part of this collection this year as it had been many years. I won’t comment, at least not too much, about the show but I must say that if you loved the books but don’t want the commitment of re-reading all of them (it’s a lot!) this is the perfect re-introduction to the series and a […]

This seems a little less fun everyday

Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War by P.W. Singer and August Cole

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I attended graduate school at the Naval Postgraduate School, run by the U.S. Navy. This book was recommended by everyone I met there.  One of the authors, P.W. Singer, was a guest lecturer while I was a student. I’d already read his other book, Like War: The Weaponization of Social Media and I really liked it. Well, I really appreciated it but liking it might be a tad macabre as it detailed all the things that were happening on social media to influence our opinions. […]

Army Chief of Staff Reading List

Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam by H.R. McMaster

Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War by Paul Scharre

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 by Paul Kennedy

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I read all three of these books as they are on the Army Chief of Staff Reading List.  That list is a bi-annual list the highest ranking member of the Army publishes for professional development.  Sometimes the lists are highly curated and you can see the purpose and direction intended.  Sometimes, they are just a huge collection of non-fiction books that people have been told to read for years.  The current list has 120+ books and seems to have no defining theme.  The books in […]

Meets All the Hype

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

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I wanted to read this book for years. I even bought it an Audible during a sale at one point but I put off reading it due to its length.  I was really just looking for the right time to commit to it fully. That happened this summer as my family and I moved back across the country from California to Virginia.  My wife and the kids flew as our children are really young.  I drove with the dogs and rocked out to a few […]

A Professional Reading Collection

The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle

Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World by William H. McRaven

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom

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I read a lot of books for professional development.  Some I read because they are on a suggested reading list.  Some because I am genuinely interested in them.  Many I read because the are recommended by my peers. I think that most of my peers read this type of book exclusively so they are recommended more frequently.  I find that many of the these books are fine, quick reads but very few offer the profound insights that they promise or suggest. Now, I am not […]



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