Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Ready For Her Close-Up

North of Montana by April Smith

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I read an interview with famed Los Angeles-based crime writer Michael Connelly where he was asked to give two recommendations for under-appreciated LA novels. North of Montana is one he mentioned and I was intrigued by it. I had no familiarity with the work of April Smith and the premise sounded interesting enough, especially how Connelly pitched it: a procedural novel with a female detective who has to deal with her male colleagues bullcrap. So I picked it up. I see what Connelly likes about it. […]

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The Crossing` by Michael Connelly

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The Crossing is the 18th Harry Bosch novel, and in this installment we catch him 6 months into his forced retirement from the LAPD.  When Harry gets a call from his half-brother, Mickey Haller (the Lincoln Lawyer) asking Harry to take a look into one of his cases, Harry is torn between residual loyalty to the police force and ensuring justice is done.  Harry quickly becomes convinced that Haller’s client is innocent, and joins the dark side (legal defence) in a race to find the […]

Truth is Not Always Freeing

The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly

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I’ve never followed a linear pattern with the Harry Bosch series. Trunk Music was my first read in it and I grabbed that one specifically because I liked the plot summary. It’s still the best one by far. The Black Echo is an uninspired mishmash of cop novel cliches. Angel’s Flight and The Wrong Side of Goodbye are fine for what they are. Rene Ballard seems like she may be an interesting character; The Late Show is a good introductory novel for her and not much else in terms of gripping mystery. Connelly is […]

fun fact: name dropping Joan Didion no less than 45 times in your 270 page book does not make you Joan Didion

Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin

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You know that dream where you realize that you have been in assigned to a class for an entire semester, but you have never once attended the class? You “wake up” on the day that your final is due and panic, then cobble together whatever previous assignments that you have scattered about that might be able to pass for whatever you were supposed to do in that class? I am fairly sure that’s what happened to Alice Bolin when she woke up one day, book […]

Hate reading my way into 2020

Ask the Dust by John Fante

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This slim novel has attained a cult following as an American classic and more particularly as a California touchstone.  Garnering some mixed reviews at the time of its publication, largely for its ‘obscene’ language and subject matter (cussing and sex in the 1930s), Charles Bukowski revived its popularity by calling it one of his primary influences and writing the introduction for a new edition. The plot is somewhat autobiographical: Arturo Bandini, a struggling young writer from Colorado, moves to Los Angeles to chase his dreams […]

Eve Babitz

Hollywood's Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A. by Lili Anolik

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I had never heard of Eve Babitz until Joan Didion and/or Jia Tolentino wrote about her. If you stand out to those two, you automatically have me on board as an eager learner. They speak of her  as an artist and writer with respect and some distance, like a mythological folk hero. She’s somewhere in between Eddie & The Cruisers and Jeff Mangum from Neutral Milk Hotel, I guess? Anyway, I wanted to learn more about this Hollywood aristocrat. Unfortunately, Eve Babitz’ many books are […]



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