Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Row, Row, Row, Row, Row, Row, Row, Row, Row Your Boat

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

by 1 Comment

About ninety percent of the reason I chose this book was because Edward Herrmann (aka Richard Gilmore) was the narrator of the audiobook. The other ten percent was a lingering Olympic hangover. What didn’t factor into the equation was any particular fondness for, or interest in, the sport of rowing. I’ve never rowed and rowing was one of the sports I didn’t really get into during this summer’s games. It doesn’t really pop on television, at least in my opinion. Still, The Boys in the […]

“California, here we come, right back where we started from…”

Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History by Alan Sepinwall

by 6 Comments

I picked the lyric above from Phantom Planet’s “California” (The O.C.’s theme song) because it nails how I feel about reconnecting with The O.C., a show that holds a curiously large place in my heart. I’ve visited the show at various life stages, from being a teenage college student all the way through being a grown family man with kids of my own. Life changes, but my love for The O.C. stays the same. Why? What keeps me coming back? I picked up Alan Sepinwall’s […]

Sensible, Humane Advice

Mini Habits for Weight Loss by Stephen Guise

by 2 Comments

Normally I avoid books like Mini Habits for Weight Loss like the plague. I had an eating disorder many years ago and dieting is an anathema to me. However, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 kidney disease recently and have to change my lifestyle in an attempt to stop further deterioration. It’s a tricky spot. Luckily I like all kinds of food and I can cook, so that will help. But there’s no getting around that it would help to lose some weight and increase […]

Stingers

Scorpions' Dance: The President, The Spymaster, and Watergate by Jefferson Morley

by Leave a Comment

Hmmm. This is tough. I was loving the first part of this book. It was maybe my favorite non-fiction read of the year. It almost read like a thriller. It traces the early political careers of Dick Helms and Richard Nixon respectively, along with the trajectory that would lead them to Watergate and the close of their careers. Then it got to the Kennedy stuff. And I realized Jefferson Morley is a Kennedy conspiracy theorist. Not a hardcore one. He doesn’t seem to believe anything […]

I’ve the munchies

Wild Brunch: Poems About How Creatures Eat by David L. Harrison

by Leave a Comment

Wild Brunch: Poems About How Creatures Eat by David L. Harrison and illustrated by Giles Laroche is a delightful introduction to a few animals and how they eat. Some familiar animals (hippos) and some new ones (aardvarks) will each be given a page to allow you to have a poetic peek into things. Not only are some familiar, like the fly, you do not usually get them in a book like this. They are broken down into types (land, air, etc) and a handful of […]

When you’ve got a fox in mind

A Fox in My Brain by Lou Lubie

by Leave a Comment

Kirkus Reviews (04/15/2024): A young woman chronicles her experience with cyclothymia in this translated title from France. This graphic memoir opens with Lou, 16, having just begun to experience symptoms of depression. As she goes on to attend art school and video game school, move in with her boyfriend, and create a video game, her significant mood swings cause her distress, at times leading to suicidal ideation. She’s told by psychiatrists that she’s too young and pretty to be anxious or depressed. Eventually, Lou finds […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo