Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About vel veeter

CBR 8
CBR 9
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR14 Bingo Badges
CBR15 Participant

vel veeter's Reviews:

We Were Eight Years in Power – Ta-Nehisi Coates (2017)

We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates

by Leave a Comment

I thought about the rating for this book a few different ways and for a few different extended moments. In addition, I also thought about whether I wanted to read this book at all. Now in 2021, especially after the election, I feel a little more emotional settled to process some of the thoughts and feelings I had during the course of this book. In addition, I think I’d read almost all these pieces as they came out or most of them. So for one, […]

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess (1962)

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

by Leave a Comment

I think my trajectory for this book is similar to a lot of people’s (especially boys–>men) which is that I saw the movie first, at a way too young age, and could not really process or make sense of any ideas, other than salaciousness of it (not good!) and the stunning visuals and audio in the film. Then in college I read the book and realized there was a lot more to it in general, at least a final moment that challenges the rest of […]

The Last Kind Words Saloon – Larry McMurtry (2014)

The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry

by Leave a Comment

It’s probably not a great sign for a book if while reading it I keep thinking about the much better books out there about the same topic and plot that I would rather read, review, and recommend. So I will do a little of both here. This book tells some of the final stories about Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, which Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill floating around in the background. This is a book about the closing of the West, not in the […]

Rhino Ranch – Larry McMurtry (2009)

Rhino Ranch by Larry McMurtry

by Leave a Comment

Something about the last two books of this series and perhaps Larry McMurtry in general really feels the need to weigh in on whether or not Duane Moore is ever going to have sex again. The previous book When the Light Goes is decidedly bad, and this book is better, but both are obsessed with this question. A few years on from the previous book, we find Duane still married to the young Annie, who is more wayward than hoped and the two have a kind […]

Darkmans – Nicola Barker (2007)

Darkmans by Nicola Barker

by Leave a Comment

I have to admit a weird dumb error I made in approaching this book. It’s listed as part of a trilogy, and that this is the third book. I also found out that you don’t have to read them in order or together at all, which is good since I tried reading the first one and really didn’t like it. So then I realized about 400 pages into this book that it’s not the “Thomas Gateway” trilogy, alluding to some shadowy figure, but the “Thames […]

Thank God for the Atom Bomb – Paul Fussell (1988)

Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays by Paul Fussell

by Leave a Comment

This is a tough one to review in part because what Paul Fussell is essentially arguing in the opening essay is that the dropping of the atomic bomb unleashed untold horrors–the death and destruction intended and known prior to, with the legacy of radiation and cancer and unforeseen consequence–but based on the information at the time, and based on the costs of lives, and seen through the eyes of common soldiers, airmen, and sailors to be the best option there was at the time. The […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo