Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Cults, Sex, and Vegetarian Recipes

Holy Food: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat ― An American History by Christina Ward

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I loved this book, which is an odd thing to say because it took me weeks to finish it. It is dense. And the crazy stuff that people called “religion” required more than a few re-reads. On Rosicrucianism Paschal Beverly Randolph saw sex as a powerful energy that could be controlled and sublimated into magical works. As he explored sex magic and the power of the Will, he came to odds with Madame Blavatsky who, as others have testified, tried to kill him with her […]

Sunset Strip

Little Green by Walter Mosley

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One of my all-time favorite movies is Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye. Featuring Elliot Gould in a great star turn as Phillip Marlowe who is deposited in the 1970s as a fish-out-of-water cynical private eye, Altman does a fantastic job of contrasting the post-war male angst of the 50s with the post-60s hypershift in American culture. And oh yeah, there’s a mystery to solve. Chronologically, there’s no gap between Little Green and Cinnamon Kiss, Mosley’s previous Easy Rawlins book. The former picks up a few months after where the latter […]

Kiss and Don’t Tell

Come Again by Nate Powell

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I hate to admit this, but I am not sure what I read when it comes to Come Again by Nate Powell. On the surface it is obvious: a free love, of the earth community lives together off by themselves. They only go to town for market days and a few supplies they cannot make or grow themselves. They sell their wares (some even are legal) and even dance to bands playing. The community consists of friends old and new because of the community (some […]

Two Duds

The Wounded and the Slain by David Goodis

Doctor Lovebeads by Gary Reilly

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How much does it suck when you read two books concurrent with one another by authors you normally like…and they turn out to be complete duds? I took time to write this review after finishing both books to wonder if it was just me. Nope. Both were not good and very close to bad. The Wounded and the Slain There are good ideas in this David Goodis noir tale: ideas about marriage, accountability, colonialism, loss, sense of place and justice. But they’re buried underneath Goodis’ […]

Her real mom was probably a hippie

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Let me just start out by saying that I liked this book.  It wasn’t as murdery as the books I usually read, but I still liked it!  I think it was one my Kindle Singles from who knows when.  I usually just download them and forget that I got them, so it was probably last year some time!  Anyway, let’s get on with the review… The main character (Hannah) is heading back home to help take care of her mom who has Alzheimer’s.  She’s having […]

Go North, Young Hippie

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I read Tortilla Curtain previously and thought it was a solid novel, so was excited to pick up another book by Boyle, and one that was recommended from my favorite podcast, Literary Disco. If I had to describe Boyle’s writing in one word it would be “unrelenting.”  His style can feel like a bit of a slog, but he is a compelling storyteller who shines a light on sub-groups that I don’t often read about, so for me it has felt like I learned a lot […]



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