Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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 […]

Out of Print, but should not be forgotten

Refresh, Refresh by Danica Novgorodoff

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Refresh, Refresh has come up on my radar several times. I was not interested as it looked like either a bloody fantasy with no point or another war book. A graphic novel would be an interesting take on either theme, but was I in the mood for it? In a recent grabbing of graphic novel covers catching my eye, I said, “Worse case I do not like and do not finish.” I had a feeling (though not sure why) it was about Vietnam. And it is […]

No amount of redistribution or reorganisation of rotten meat will make a dead body more palatable.

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Quarter Cannonball achievement unlocked! I am a huge fan of Mary Shelley and the Frankenstein story, so I was super intrigued by Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi. I wasn’t disappointed by this retelling, some of it told from the monster’s point of view, but I’ll admit there were parts of the story that just didn’t grab me. Frankenstein in Baghdad is a darkly comic story of life in Baghdad during the years just after the US invasion of Iraq. It’s an English translation from the original Arabic, so I’m […]

Theocons and Privatizing War

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I had just started my senior year of high school in September of 2001. I was eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch in front of the tv when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. I went to school without really knowing what was going on, and in every class that day the teachers had the TVs on. I remember at lunch a classmate saying, “A whole lot of people are going to be dead, now.” My neighbors were Saudi and kept their kids home for […]

Army Chief of Staff Reading List #7

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I looked forward to reading this book for a while.  I really enjoyed another of the author’s books, The Generals, and its critical take on U.S. military leadership.  Fiasco did not disappoint. Fiasco is the story of the early part of the Iraq War.  There is a little background so that one understands the main players, namely Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld, and then it jumps headfirst into a chronological discussion of the decisions made and their repercussions.  Fiasco discusses how the war was basically preordained.  The […]

Army Chief of Staff Reading List #1

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I read this book because it entered the Army Chief of Staff reading list last year. The author, David Kilcullen, begins by discussing his qualifications and more importantly, declares his biases or specifically, the lack thereof. Kilcullen is an Australian and acknowledges that he is not registered to vote in the United States nor does he affiliate with any particular party’s politics. Books like this often seem politicized so it was refreshing for the author to be so candid. In Blood Year, he is highly […]



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