Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

That Rumpelstiltskin is my name

Rumpelstiltskin by Mac Barnett and Carson Ellis

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Do you like fairy or folk tales? Do you like pure telling of said fairy tales with a small change? And do you like Rumpelstiltskin? Or at least the story, it is a little hard to like Rumpelstitskin. And if you answered yes to any of the above, you should read Mac Barnett’s version of the story. It is the story we know: king meets a miller, who brags about how awesome his daughter is, the king is greedy and wants the spun gold, the […]

Whose House? Bauhaus!

Bauhaus by Frank Whitford

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Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: art. This is a book based on the art school and architectural/artistic movement called bauhaus. I don’t always like getting pushed out of my reading comfort zone except when I do. For both CBR17 Bingo AND my local library reading game respectively, I had to read a book on art. And like other subjects where I don’t have much of an interest in, I grab something that’s quick and digestible. This one clocked in under 200 pages and had […]

Have Seen the Enemy

Smiley's People by John Le Carré

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Of the many things that can be said about John Le Carré’s George Smiley series — and there is a lot to be said — the overarching lesson is how you can never really “win” at espionage. Oh sure, you can occasionally foil the enemy, maybe draw some large gains or uncover revelations. Espionage helps win war when an actual war is going on. But when war is fought in the shadows — and the Cold War most certainly was — one’s never going to […]

Love Isn’t Always On Time

Spy Line by Len Deighton

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Similar to a lot of series that have an overarching plot, Len Deighton keeps having to invent new ways to rework the chessboard. Does it always work plot-wise? I’m not sure. Do I enjoy reading it? Hell yeah I do. I’m not sure why I land with the Samson series so closely. I concede that Le Carré writes circles around Deighton in terms of espionage tales. And yet, I just love the characters Deighton creates; the ones who have come back to these tales time-and-time […]

I’m trying to think of a clever title that will grab attention but it all seems to frivolous for the subject

Run and Hide: How Jewish Youth Escaped the Holocaust by Don Brown

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The haunting cover of Run and Hide: How Jewish Youth Escaped the Holocaust by Don Brown does not really give you the whole picture of what is going to happen inside this book, but it is a great start. There are layers that will overlap, some things are familiar, others will give you more insight and others might be new stories or concepts. It does not feel like a subject for a graphic novel, but the subject translates well into this format, but it works […]

Early Fall Leftovers

To Start A War: How the Bush Administration Took Us Into Iraq by Robert Draper

The Travelers by Chris Pavone

A Walk Among the Tombstones by Lawrence Block

Dark Fire by CJ Sansom

The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation by Robert Rand

Stasi Child by David Young

The Cover Wife by Dan Fesperman

So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison

Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich

Geiger by Gustaf Skördeman

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

The Devil Knows You're Dead by Lawrence Block

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I’ve read some interesting stuff lately and I wish I had made more time to document it but life gets in the way that life sometimes does. Not all bad, just life. To Start A War**** I had a long thing here about connecting this to the 2024 election but I don’t want to talk current electoral politics on here, at least the specifics of them. A good book if you want to know the intelligence (ha) perspective of how we wound up in a […]



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