Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About vel veeter

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vel veeter's Reviews:

The Road to Unfreedom

The Road to Unfreedom by Tim Snyder

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So normally I avoid books about politics within the last few years because surrounding every presidency, and the Trump’s is no different, are a slew of partisan books both attacking and defending the agenda of whoever is president at the time. Most of them are deeply embarrasing as whole, even the ones the I agree with (directly or just ostensibly). Part of that reason is that most people don’t actually know anything. They know what we all know and sometimes they’re better writers, and sometimes […]

April 1865

April 1865 by Jay Winik

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The general historical argument that April 1865 is one of the most important months in US history is hard to argue with, and the book succeeds in establishing a handful of major events/series of events as evidence. Grant’s final pursuit, defeat, and submission of Lee’s army is the primary one. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln is second. The South’s (and mostly Lee’s) decision to ultimately cease the war is the next. Jonhston’s surrender to Sherman is the last. They go more or less in this […]

Coming of Age in Mississippi

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

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This book is basically three books and each one turns the previous one on its head in some significant ways. The book came out in 1968, but when you begin the opening section which takes place in the 1940s in Mississippi, and when you think about the title itself, it would be easy to think this book actually takes place 25, 50, 04 75 years previously, depending on the ways in which certain details allow for. This opening section is about the formation of Anne […]

Pattern Recognition

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

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I have read this novel four or five times now, and even taught it a few times. Each time I read it the scope of it dramatically shrinks for me. It happened this time as well. I first learned about this novel right when it came out and it was nominated for the Virginia Book Prize. And one of my professors, who is otherwise really buttoned-down and prim, knowing that Edward P Jones’s The Known World was going to win, decided she would champion this […]

Arctic Dreams

Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez

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I kept reading reviews of this book as being stunningly beautiful nature writing, and with a name like Arctic Dreams this makes perfect sense. It also made me not really want to read it at first. And I actually just picked it up and jumped into the other day and devoured it. It IS beautiful, but unlike my worries, there’s a lot of meat here. Barry Lopez is probably most well-known for this book, but he’s also a travel writer, a nature writer, a journalist, […]

Discipline and Punish

Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault

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My experience reading Foucault tells me a few things. The more he’s talking about a thing, the easier he is to understand and to apply. Also, he’s much easier when you’re 40 than when you’re 22. He’s also much easier when it’s not your first go-around as well. I think this is my third reading of this book, and this is the first time I am not reading the book for use in a class or an essay. Just for fun! The other thing to […]



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