Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

CBRBingo – True Story. Taylor Swift has NOTHING on Holmes

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

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CBR Bingo: True Story What. A. Mesmerizing. Mess.  I had only the most basic cliff noted exposure to the complete cluster that is Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, but like many things, the truth is indeed stranger than fiction. This is so cartoonish an outlandish tale that it seems to be an almost “ripped from the headlines” Law and Order style exposition: ready your popcorn, for this juicy and awful tale of lies and the downfall of genius in the healthcare industry. Carreyrou is an impeccable […]

“No, Dad, I’m not interested in getting a Ph.D., I want to make money.”

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

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I picked this one up based on its very good Cannonball Read reviews and because I needed a book of non-violent true crime for the 2019 Read Harder Challenge. This book did not disappoint. I admit, some how I had missed the entire Theranos story as is broke in 2016, so I can to this narrative entirely unspoiled. I was in for quite the narrative ride. Bad Blood is the story of Elizabeth Holmes and the company she founded at 19 as a Stanford dropout, […]

Bandaids don’t fix bullet holes

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

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I enjoyed this book immensely, and appreciated the factual and as unbiased as possible approach the author took, as his investigation of Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos eventually made him a part of the story once Holmes began to view the journalist as a threat.  Carreyrou’s level headed reporting was a necessity given Holmes’ view of him as someone with a vendetta against her personally, and he admirably sticks to what can be factually confirmed, making allowances any time he draws a conclusion that […]

So take a look what you’ve done/ ‘Cause, baby, now we’ve got bad blood, hey!/ Now we’ve got problems/ And I don’t think we can solve ’em

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

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Bad Blood is the story of Theranos and its founder’s, Elizabeth Holmes, fall from grace following the revelation that the whole company was built on secrets and lies.  I was aware of Holmes and Theranos from the countless articles written about her before and after the truth came out but it wasn’t until I saw the HBO documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood that I really grasped how deep her deception went. By positioning Theranos as a tech company in the heart of the Valley, Holmes channeled […]

“It was as if Boeing built one plane and, without doing a single flight test, told airline passengers, ‘Hop aboard.’”

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

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The following paragraphs are my meager attempt at Melrose Place fan fiction in order to demonstrate my feelings right now upon finishing this book. Please bear with me. Imagine it’s a Monday night in the late 1990s and you’re sitting on your couch watching TV, when Melrose Place comes on. Would you think it was crazy if something like this happened: Dr. Kimberly Shaw gets an idea to invent a medical device that could CHANGE THE WORLD. She tells everyone around her that her invention […]

Folies á Deux

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

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Happy Women’s History Month! John Carryrou’s Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup taught me a new phrase – folies á deux – a shared psychosis by two people in close proximity. Elizabeth Holmes and her (secret) boyfriend,  Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, ran the company she founded like their own fiefdom. They enforced Elizabeth’s version of reality, kept information siloed, and silenced anyone who questioned or criticized them. I do not know if Elizabeth Holmes started out with good intentions and then was derailed by […]



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