Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Word ‘Turbulent’ Is Bearing a Lot of Weight Here

Bomb Season in Jakarta: A personal account of a turbulent period in Australian diplomacy by Grant Dooley

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This is yet another book I’ve discovered via listening to ABC’s Conversations.  The subtitle of Bomb Season in Jakarta is A personal account of a turbulent period in Australian diplomacy, and Grant Dooley is not kidding when he writes this. Back in 2004, Dooley and his family had moved to Indonesia to start a three year stint working at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. This was a few years after the 1999 East Timorese crisis and only two years after the 2002 Bali Bombings, Indonesia’s […]

Thanksgiving 2024 Leftovers

Remembrance Day by Henry Porter

Dead Lions by Mick Herron

Zero Days by Ruth Ware

Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman

Killing Castro by Lawrence Block

Deadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins

Spy Hook by Len Deighton

London Rules by Mick Herron

Real Tigers by Mick Herron

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Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate. Remembrance Day**** An interesting take on the English-vs-Irish spy novel and while the author telegraphs too many things, he knows how to keep a story moving. Barely clears the 4-star threshold but if I invest time to read something almost 500 pages long, it has to be at least “good” and this was. Dead Lions, Real Tigers, and London Rules**** I had originally meant to do a big long post on my love/grr relationship with Mick Herron’s Slough House […]

Lest We Forget

I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction by Kidada E. Williams

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Read as part of CBR15Bingo: history-banned. Although this book hasn’t been banned (yet), it goes into great length on the oral testimonies of the victims and survivors of racial terror during Reconstruction. The narratives of slaves and post-emancipation Black persons are being banned across the country in other media. I can’t remember who tweeted it but someone once wrote a hypothesis that anti-Semitism is on the rise again because so many Holocaust survivors are dying. Reading that hit me like a thunderbolt because it made […]

Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, and Boston

Boston Strong: A City's Triumph Over Tragedy by Casey Sherman, David Wedge

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This is the story of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, told from the perspectives of the civilians and police officers who were there that day. A few days ago I watched from my window as an endless stream of marathoners ran past, cheered on by the masses of people who’d showed up to watch despite the drizzly day. I live just a couple of miles from the finish line in Copley Square, so people were looking pretty haggard but thrilled as they passed me. It’s […]

The Long Road to Brighton

There Will Be Fire: Margaret Thatcher, the IRA, and Two Minutes That Changed History by Rory Carroll

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In 1984, the IRA killed five people and came dangerously close to assassinating then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – and yet this disaster has gone mostly undiscussed in recent years. In this book, Carroll brings together the long chain of events which led up to the bombing, and unravels the complicated investigation that followed. Having been to school in both the United States and India, I like to think that I have gained a wider perspective on world history than I would have otherwise, but there […]

One of Theirs

One Of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway by Åsne Seierstad

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I kinda wish this had come out this year and not 2015. We’re looking at the ten-year anniversary of 22 July, the date of a horrifying terrorist attack in Norway, the body count of which made international news. Åsne Seierstad’s book has been lauded the last few years as the ur text on the subject; it had a quick English translation and has become an international bestseller, as well as the basis for a Paul Greengrass Netflix movie. While dense and not well-structured, the book […]



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