Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Camelot Was Always a Lie

Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan

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CBR16 Bingo: Golden – Callahan attacks the golden myth of Camelot and the Kennedy family, revealing the dark and dangerous truth underneath. Lurking in the darker corners of the Kennedy family legacy are the many women whose lives turned out worse for the association. In this book, Maureen Callahan tries to bring them to light. I’m familiar with many of the people and stories in this book, but Callahan does an excellent job of placing them in context of each other, weaving across generations and decades to […]

J’Accuse

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

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When Dick Cheney endorsed Kamala Harris this past week, I blanched. I understand the political appeal of Cheney’s endorsement. And I’m on board for whatever it takes to win this election. I am a single issue voter and that issue is my deep desire to not have Donald Trump involved in any aspect of my life. But it’s still disheartening to watch people who want Trump held accountable cheer for Cheney because we let all of these folks off the hook. Robert Draper tries to […]

C I Yikes

Libra by Don DeLillo

Poisoner In Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control by Stephen Kinzer

The Ghost by Robert Harris

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Recently, I read three different books featuring CIA chicanery (two were fictional). This was unintentional but I figured since the themes were similar, I’d just batch review them rather than do individual ones. Libra***** This was a re-read. I liked it the first time. I loved it now that I: a. had a better since of the Oswald timeline after reading Posner’s Case Closed and b. could appreciate the meta-narrative structure in a way I couldn’t before. This is the only DeLillo book I can really […]

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Balls, and it’s a war story

Henry V by William Shakespeare

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Bingo 14: Détente I’ve re-read Henry V the Shakespeare history play because I’m teaching it and haven’t actually re-read it for a good long while. This play both ends and begins with questionable peace between England and France, so it’s suitable for this square. I don’t actually remember my first read, just being really impressed by Kenneth Branagh’s film version, or perhaps more specifically Patrick Doyle’s score. The choral bit after the battle of Agincourt is pretty impressive. One big thing I noticed upon re-reading […]

Whitewashed Histories and Walls

White House by the Sea: A Century of the Kennedys at Hyannis Port by Kate Storey

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CBR16 Bingo: Cult – The Kennedys have rather a cult following, and in this book particularly we learn how many people were so fascinated they swarmed their homes in Hyannis Port. When the Kennedy family decided to make their summer home in Hyannis Port, MA, they little suspected how strongly associated the place would become with their aspirations and their scandals. I’m a Massachusetts native, but my family’s roots there don’t go back long enough to have really witnessed the heyday of the Kennedys in […]

Someday, He Will Be President

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro

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Robert Caro’s Lyndon Johnson series has always been honest about what it is. Ostensibly, this is true about every biography. A book about the life of Amelia Earhart should be just that. Only, every biographer, no matter how well-intentioned, objective, clear-eyed or distant brings with them an angle. Perhaps a person was under appreciated in their time. Maybe they were overrated by the laudations of historical standard. Possibly they had a hidden back story that impacted their life. Caro has been clear that these books […]



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