Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Now You Know Who to Blame for These Earworms

Public Cowboy #1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry by Holly George-Warren

by Leave a Comment

Well, ‘tis the time of the year for quick reviews, because I’ve got a backlog I want to get in before the end of the year. This book covers (in exhaustive detail) Autry’s amazing career as a performer.  The Angels (baseball), radio and TV station ownerships, and his namesake museum on Los Angeles are barely mentioned.  Autry went, in the 1920’s, from live performances at rodeos to songwriting to radio to the movies to TV, successfully managing each field with pretty minimal skills as a […]

A few fouls didn’t stop him

If Lin Can: How Jeremy Lin Inspired Asian Americans to Shoot for the Stars by Richard Ho

by Leave a Comment

To be frank, Jeremy Lin probably owes his career to luck just as much as his talent. The man was talented on the teams before he joined the New York Knicks, but since he did not get a lot of playing time, that talent was not seen. However, due to the bad luck of veteran players being injured and the teams losing record, he was given a shot, and this allowed Lin to be seen. And it sounds like he was seen and then some. In fact, seen […]

2024 is going to be a busy year

Our Nipa Hut: A Story in the Philippines by Rachell Abalos

I Am Both : A Vietnamese Refugee Story  by Kerisa Greene

Two Homes, One Heart  by Jessica Young

All About Color by Elizabeth Rusch

Of Words and Water: The Story of Wilma Dykeman—Writer, Historian, Environmentalist  by Shannon Hitchcock

by 2 Comments

It is a picture book reviewing round up time! My theme is that of cultures. Of course we know the concept of “country and culture” but sometimes a culture can be something you do not immediately think of.  Yelena and Papa take care of their nipa hut and it takes care of them in Rachell Abalos’s picture book, Our Nipa Hut: A Story in the Philippines. Due in February 2024, I was lucky enough to have my book dealer send me a finished copy, as this is a book that needs […]

“There are no stupid questions, nor any forbidden ones, but there are some questions that have no answer.”

Questions I Am Asked About The Holocaust : Young Reader’s Edition by Hedi Fried

by Leave a Comment

Four main things stand out for me from reading Questions I Am Asked About The Holocaust : Young Reader’s Edition. The first, it took the author, Hedi Fried, a lifetime to heal and process her experiences; the second, history has repeated itself, and third, while I knew what genocide meant (there is also a glossary that gives a technical definition) it was broken down by etymology: genos: people and cide: murder, or People Murder. But perhaps the big takeaway from this translation by Alice E. Olsson […]

The Other Side of the Sun

The Last Yakuza: Life and Death in the Japanese Underworld by Jake Adelstein

by Leave a Comment

The first time Martin Scorsese called Henry Hill after reading Hill’s gangster memoir Wiseguy, he told Hill: I’ve been waiting for this book for ten years. To which Hill replied: I’ve been waiting for this call for ten years. Scorsese had wanted to tell a tale of mobsters that didn’t revolve around Vito Corleone-esque bosses and power players. He wanted the audience to know about the gangster-next-door, the types he grew up with around Manhattan’s Little Italy. He found the story he was looking for in Hill’s […]

Thick As Blood

Judas: How A Sister's Testimony Brought Down A Criminal Mastermind by Astrid Holleeder

by Leave a Comment

I try hard not to pander as a well-intentioned guy but, man, men suck. Not trying to impress anyone with this very obvious comment. It’s a world created by and dominated by men. I don’t say this to invisibilize the very real gains and sacrifices women and non-cis-men have made in this world. But so often, the worst crimes in humanity originate from the minds and hands of men. I say this because Astrid Holleeder’s very raw memoir about testifying against her brother is not […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo