Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Good Book That’s Not Quite For Me

Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnell

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Best for: Those interested in one person’s journey to an abolitionist perspective. Those who are already or thinking of becoming abolitionists but looking for some answers to the tougher questions. In a nutshell: Organizer and lawyer Purnell shares her journey towards an abolitionist viewpoint. Worth quoting: “If we truly want to save lives in the US and beyond, we have to join in the traditions of activists who fight to end policing, wars and military operations across the globe.” “It makes me wish that people […]

Reacquainting myself with Armand Gamache – #16

All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny

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This is the 16th outing with Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, and we meet him and his family in Paris, instead of their adopted hometown of Three Pines, Québec. All of his children, children-in-law, and grandchildren now live in Paris. Armand and Rein-Marie are enjoying their time together in the city where they were engaged, and that includes spending a lot of time with Armand’s billionaire godfather, Stephen Horowitz. After dinner one night, Stephen is injured in a hit-and-run, and in trying to solve that crime, […]

Bad Men

Quarry by Max Allan Collins

I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad by Baynard Woods & Brandon Sodeberg

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I read two books over the weekend about bad men. One fiction, one non-fiction. Both good in their own respective ways. Quarry 4 stars This month’s Hard Case Crime tale was one I had actually been avoiding for a while. I find Max Allan Collins to be insufferable. In interviews I’ve read with him, he seems to be the kind of blowhard-ish know-it-all I don’t care for in the crime community. His verbal racism at the Shamus Awards was obnoxious. Really, how hard is it to […]

The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

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As always, I’m three years late to the party with this one. Mostly, I loved it. I’m on book #7 for the year, but this is the first I’m reviewing after dropping out early last year when becoming a foster parent ate my life, and I’m still getting in the swing of how to structure reviews so for this one I’m going to just do liked and disliked lists. Liked: I’m a sucker for a book with a large cast of characters who all feel […]

The Shield

The Force by Don Winslow

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Whoo man, this one…wow. I’ve always had mixed feelings on Don Winslow. Some of his books are full-of-themselves to the point of making me actively disdain the writing (The Death and Life of Bobby Z, Savages). Others are too broad in scope to get their full point across (The Power of the Dog). The Winter of Frankie Machine almost falls into the latter category but I really liked the voice of the lead character so it won out for me. Much like Frankie Machine, I picked this up because […]

Ooh I hate read most of this book!

What Have You Done by Matthew Farrell

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Somehow I end up reading a lot of books where one of the main characters is gaslighted a lot.  I’m totally not into that in real life, but apparently I’m into reading about it?  Is there something wrong with me?  I guess I’ll have to discuss that with my therapist.  Note to self: get therapist. Anyway, our intrepid hero Liam is a forensic crime scene technician, and he’s called to a scene that scares him one day.  It’s a woman he was having an affair […]



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