america – Page 3 – Cannonball Read 17

CBRBingo – Remix. Mrs. Holmes puts the original to shame.

Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City's Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation by Brad Ricca

August 25, 2019 by cheerbrarian Leave a Comment

CBR Bingo is really the gift that keeps on giving! I struggle a little with the framework I’ve applied to my reading at present as I try to knock out squares, but without Bingo and CBR I wouldn’t have found Mrs. Sherlock Holmes and that would have been a real tragedy. I wanted to get CBR Bingo Remix square and wasn’t ready to tackle more Laurie R. King. Read the first one and was on board for the first 3/4 of the book but didn’t […]

…Nearly every American hungers to move

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

March 10, 2019 by tillie Leave a Comment

John Steinbeck is 58 and he feels like he’s lost touch with America. He used to know his country, even write books about it, but now he’s unsure. The only sensible thing to do, of course, it to buy a customized truck and set out on a ginormous road trip across America ‘where the people are’ and get to know them all again. I, an American writer, writing about America, was working from memory, and the memory is at best a faulty, warpy reservoir. I […]

Just Because It’s Brief Doesn’t Mean It Isn’t Painful

Ablutions by Patrick DeWitt

January 17, 2019 by janet snakehole 1 Comment

Do you love the show Intervention, but find it too glossy and upbeat? Do you feel the problem with Charles Bukowski is that he was just a bit too cheerful? Then this might just be the book for you. Ablutions is narrated by an unnamed Barman (I’d say he’s our protagonist but I’m not entirely sure that is the case) working in a deeply depressing, lowest-of-lowbrow Hollywood bar. Imagine all the magnificent wealth, glamour, and luxury of Hollywood. Cool, now imagine the polar opposite of […]

A Road Trip with a Dog

Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

January 8, 2019 by thewheelbarrow 3 Comments

I read this due to my Steinbeck kick. I was a little worried about reading it immediately after The Grapes of Wrath but it was the perfect antidote to my melancholy mood. This is a travel journey by one of America’s preeminent authors who decided that that he no longer felt in touch with America and her people and wanted to find her again. Discontented seems to best describe the way he felt with his life when he set off on his journey in 1960 […]

Radium…the wonder drug. Oh wait, nope.

December 5, 2018 by cheerbrarian 3 Comments

This story is the very definition of the word fantastic. It is unbelievable. If you enjoyed (though, enjoyed is a strong work) Devil in the White City or Killers of the Flower Moon, buckle up and prepare to be horrified by more actual American history. In the 1898, we discovered radium. It was great! Just neat-o. It glowed, it was heralded as a wonder drug. WHAT. YES. And, the Radium Girls were the lucky women hired to work in factories that used radium-based paint to […]

Army Chief of Staff Reading List #8

March 13, 2018 by thewheelbarrow Leave a Comment

First of all, I am on a roll with my professional reading so far this year. I have another completed book to review and I’m halfway through another already. While it may sound like conceit, I am really impressed with myself so far. I made it a point this year to do a better job of, not just reading, but maximizing my time and so far, so good. Anyways, The World America Made made was a short look at the policies and decision throughout the […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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