Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I’m just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened

War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence by Ronan Farrow

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I’m really only familiar with Ronan Farrow in his current incarnation as a reporter, so I was surprised to learn that journalism was actually his second career – before that, he worked in the State Department as part of the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.   The book is a dive into the State Department and America’s unsteady history of diplomacy. While the gutting of State under the Trump administration is of course part of the narrative, we look at how […]

The Ratf#%^ers

The Seersucker Whipsaw by Ross Thomas

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Ratf#%^&ing has been in the news a lot the last couple of years because of the Trump/Russia scandal. Outside influence affecting democratic elections is a time honored tradition, and few are more familiar with it than the United States, which has been practicing it for decades. It’s practically the CIA’s métier at this point. It’s a violent, imperialistic practice ripe for skewing. Enter Ross Thomas. This is one of his earlier novels and apparently it’s influenced by his real life adventures in the African political […]

It’s Not Just You, The World is Collapsing

The Trouble With Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time by Brooke Gladstone

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I idly picked up this slim book—tract? broadside?—at the local bookstore while waiting for my daughter to browse all the new graphic novels. This quick read is probably more potent now than it was upon its original publication in May 2017. The premise: many Americans living in the age of Trump the primary candidate, Trump the Republican nominee, and Trump the President *rightly* feel unmoored from reality. How could we [liberals] so badly misunderstand our fellow Americans? be surprised that our government can be so […]

“Do we settle for the world as it is, or do we work for the world as it should be?”

Becoming by Michelle Obama

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During the eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency, it became clear to me that Michelle Obama was a statuesque and beautiful woman, who was also clearly intelligent, caring and wanting to make a difference alongside her husband. Being part of the first African American Presidential couple in the White House and basically raising her young daughters more or less in the public eye cannot have been easy. Nevertheless, I didn’t know all that much about Michelle Obama, which was why this autobiography was so interesting […]

A Long, Violent Look at the Not-So-Distant Past

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

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Verdict: A rewarding read, but definitely not for everyone. Review: Its hard to know where to start with a review, as this book was a LOT: a lot of book awards (including the Booker), a lot of characters, a lot of narrators, a lot of violence (way more than 7 killings), a lot of the CIA messing around in 3rd world countries, and a whole lot of pages (almost 700!).  Moreover, that ‘a lot’ hits you right away, kicking off with a 4 page cast […]

Did we go too far this time?

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Goodnight Trump (an unauthorized parody) has potential. You are not a Trump fan, yes! We get to say, “F-Trump” as Lea DeLaria is so fond of saying. You know that Gan Golan and Erich Origen are going to have fun. However, the issue with books like this is they get old fast. There have been too many parodies of Goodnight Moon that one more waters them all down. And the fact that this is political and not “sweet” can make it feel “icky” at times. […]



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