Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Ancient History

The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

by Leave a Comment

If you were writing an American History textbook you might be tempted to skip from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the September 11 attacks with just a few brief pitstops along the way. Even as they were happening the Nineties tended to feel less consequential than other eras, and in the years since there was been less nostalgia for them than many other decades. But of course there is always a lot going on, in politics, in art, in technology and science, and […]

=w=

The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

by Leave a Comment

Earlier this year I reviewed Cyberville, Stacy Horn’s recounting of starting an online community in 1990s New York. That got me on a 90s entertainment kick in music, movies, and other books. (To be honest, I’m always on a 90s kick in music.) Klosterman’s The Nineties was an obvious followup read. While a lot of my pop culture interests are Chuck Klosterman-adjacent, this was the first time I’ve read one of his books. If his other reads are like this one, I’ll put them on […]

This book almost killed me. Literally.

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story by Chuck Klosterman

by 10 Comments

So, the book itself didn’t actually almost kill me- as much as it tried to do- but I just finished this audio book while driving home from work (yay essential workforce) on a highway that was not, in the slightest, plowed. I have been a New Englander my entire life. I like driving in the snow. I am confident, competent, and careful. This was the worst drive I have ever had- no hyperbole. A tractor trailer blew by me (only one lane, mind you) and […]

But what if the pony’s trick is really cool?

by Leave a Comment

I’ll pretty much read whatever Chuck Klosterman puts out.  I know what I’m getting, it’s pop culture cake with highbrow frosting, but dammit, who doesn’t like cake? It’s also not as easy to pull off as even Klosterman himself joked in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by giving the formula for writing his pieces. Many seemed to take that as a recipe rather than a joke; I’m thinking particularly of cannonball nine book club selection Life Goes Pretty Fast, you can’t just overthink pop culture […]

“Life is rarely about what happened; it’s mostly about what we think happened.”

by 5 Comments

I was a little torn on rating this book, because I really liked a few of the essays, kind of hated a couple, and felt indifferent towards most of the rest. My indifference, however, stemmed mostly from the fact that Klosterman’s pop culture world runs about 5 to 10 years ahead of mine, so much of what he discusses feeling fervently about as a 20 something, I totally missed out on as a pre-teen. But I’m going with 3 stars, because if I could never muster the energy […]

This book pissed me off.

by 2 Comments

So, here’s the deal. I was going to try and write a cogent, well-thought out review of exactly why I disliked this book so much, but it’s not working out that way. The more I sit here trying to think of things to say, the more my blood pressure skyrockets and I get more and more retroactively angry at the book. At first, I wanted to give this book two stars, because there are a couple of essays in here that felt valid to me, […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo