Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

(Chappell voice) Battle For Manhattan

Battle For Manhattan by Bruce Bliven, Jr.

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Read as part of CBR 17 Bingo: starts with letter B. Look this is going to be a very strained review. I’m sorry but this book doesn’t merit 250 words. As it says on the inside flap, large portions of this book originally appeared in The New Yorker. It’s a glorified wikipedia entry. I picked it up because I needed to read a book about the American Revolution for my library book bingo and it was a slim volume. I knew Manhattan had some importance in the […]

August 2023 Leftovers

Red Cat by Peter Spiegelman

You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy

Gangland by Chuck Hogan

Death and the Good Life by Richard Hugo

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexa Coe

Britt-Marie Was Here by Frederik Backman

Occupied City by David Peace

Sleepless City by Reed Farrel Coleman

Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum

Run Time by Cathy Ryan Howard

Loyalty by Lisa Scottoline

None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

The Club by Ellery Lloyd

Not in Bronxville by Rita K. Farrelly

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Unquestionably the worst month in the calendar. Red Cat*** It’s not the writer’s fault that I just finished Robert Kolker’s excellent Lost Girls in light of the apprehension of the man they think is the Gilgo Beach murderer. But my threshold for murdered sex workers was low going into this. I only finished it because it filled a specific square for my library summer reading game. It’s not bad; the mystery is done well but it doesn’t stand out as far as the rest of […]

“No, it’s a biography. Like a man would write.”

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe

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This book opens up with a chart listing all the things that the public consciousness “knows” about George Washington, right next to facts debunking those myths. Which is what they are: myths. As one of America’s Founding Fathers, the man who led the country in the Revolutionary War, and the first President of the United States, he has become more a mythologized figure than an actual person for most people. And as Coe points out in her introduction, even the most rigorous historian and scholar […]

It was fine!

You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe

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The title is fun! The cover is cheeky! The opening quote from Brad Neely’s beloved “Washington” video was greatly appreciated! It seemed like we were off to the races, but then… … … it got awkward. I listened to this as an audio book. The performance was fine, but the layout of the opening was just a mess. It probably worked better on paper, but the book started with ten minutes of list-reading. Then a prologue. Then an introduction. Then more list reading. I found […]

The Revolutionary War in Three Volumes

Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown by Nathaniel Philbrick

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***This is a truly terrible review of three books.  If you like the Revolutionary War, read them.*** I first learned about Nathaniel Philbrick while doing research for a presentation on one of the commanders of the Battle of Bunker Hill, COL William Prescott.  While I planned to read the book then, I just did what most people do while preparing a presentation, I read only the things that were super relevant to the project.  I told myself for years that I would come back to […]

Dullness of Character Makes for Bland Review Titles

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This was not the next biography on my list. I had engaged, the day previous to starting this book, in a heated exchange with a co-worker over who would comprise a list of the five most important Americans (I live an exciting life, folks). My off-hand suggestion of George Washington was dismissed with disdain, and countered with George Mason. This led down a rabbit hole which I won’t bother venturing again, but the salient point here is that I was driven to pursue greater understanding […]



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