Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

(Chappell voice) Battle For Manhattan

Battle For Manhattan by Bruce Bliven, Jr.

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Read as part of CBR 17 Bingo: starts with letter B. Look this is going to be a very strained review. I’m sorry but this book doesn’t merit 250 words. As it says on the inside flap, large portions of this book originally appeared in The New Yorker. It’s a glorified wikipedia entry. I picked it up because I needed to read a book about the American Revolution for my library book bingo and it was a slim volume. I knew Manhattan had some importance in the […]

August 2023 Leftovers

Red Cat by Peter Spiegelman

You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy

Gangland by Chuck Hogan

Death and the Good Life by Richard Hugo

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexa Coe

Britt-Marie Was Here by Frederik Backman

Occupied City by David Peace

Sleepless City by Reed Farrel Coleman

Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum

Run Time by Cathy Ryan Howard

Loyalty by Lisa Scottoline

None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

The Club by Ellery Lloyd

Not in Bronxville by Rita K. Farrelly

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Unquestionably the worst month in the calendar. Red Cat*** It’s not the writer’s fault that I just finished Robert Kolker’s excellent Lost Girls in light of the apprehension of the man they think is the Gilgo Beach murderer. But my threshold for murdered sex workers was low going into this. I only finished it because it filled a specific square for my library summer reading game. It’s not bad; the mystery is done well but it doesn’t stand out as far as the rest of […]

The wonkier version of “Hamilton”

Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America by Jack Rakove

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A very different account of the putting together of the American system of government.  This is the sort of stuff your high school American History (if you had such a class) textbook glossed over, and it’s fascinating to see, in such detail, how it all came together.  Oh sure, there’s some mention of Washington the general, and the various battles, and the multitude of issues the British Empire was facing at the same time, but that’s not where the heart of this book lies. I […]

I know him, that can’t be

John Adams by David McCullough

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One of my first favorite books was Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. It won the Newberry Medal in 1944 and I must have read a dozen times starting in fourth or fifth grade. Since then, I have loved revolutionary America. Naturally then, I’ve wanted to read this book for quite some time. I read 1776, also by David McCullough, while in college and found myself interested in this book.  As a history major, I didn’t specialize in any specific era but colonial America would have […]

The year is 1781 and James Armistead Lafayette is a spy!

Choose Your Own Adventure Spies: James Armistead Lafayette by Kyandreia Jones

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The two main story points of this Choose Your Own Adventure Spies are radically different. One story arc has a supernatural aspect that clashes with the realistic one. And while there are amusing moments, Kyandreia Jones’s story is mostly serious. In CYOAS: James Armistead Lafayette, you are James Armistead, a literate slave of Virginia. During a fire (that may have been a diversion to help your friend John escape) where you are trying to save your fellow slaves, you are hit on the head by […]

Three Revolutionary War romances.

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This book is actually three novellas, all written under the umbrella premise of Eliza Hamilton collecting stories about her husband, Alexander, in service of recording his legacy. I enjoyed all three of the novellas, but I definitely enjoyed Courtney Milan’s the most (not really surprised there). I’m also not really surprised that I enjoyed Alyssa Cole’s the least, as I’ve not had great luck with her books in the past. But overall, this is a solid trio of romances, set in a time period I […]



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