Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Look Ma, this is how the Internet works!

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks by Scott J. Shapiro

by Leave a Comment

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the content of my review. The blurb from Goodreads: An entertaining account of the philosophy and technology of hacking–and why we all need to understand it. It’s a signal paradox of our times that we live in an information society but do not know how it works. And without understanding how our information is stored, used, and protected, we are vulnerable to having it exploited. In Fancy Bear Goes Phishing, Scott J. Shapiro draws […]

“It might be that saving the world is idiotically simple. Maybe we just need to connect and care for one another.” #CBRBingo – Shelfie

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (The Carls, #2) by Hank Green

by Leave a Comment

I give this beautiful eyesore of a book five stars. Well, 4.5 rounded up. I kind of don’t know what to say about this book! It was a lot! And, honestly, I liked the first book in this duology (3.5 stars worth), but it didn’t blow my socks off or anything. This one kind of did. I think there was a huge jump in quality here, but also a huge jump in scale. There was a focus on April in the first one that kept […]

“But we know that people are complicated and have a mixture of flaws and talents and sins. So why do we pretend that we don’t?”

So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson

by 4 Comments

This is one of those books that probably everybody should read. It wasn’t the most brilliantly written book I’ve ever read, but that’s okay, that’s not Ronson’s style. He’s very workmanlike in his writing, sort of tongue-in-cheek, and he’s got this great way of using his simple style to deliver these darkly funny deadpan one-liners. But what I really liked about this was the message. The book is short, and sort of rambly, and structured more like a Russian doll than anything. He opens stories […]

“The power that each of us has over complete strangers to make them feel terrible and frightened and weak is amazing.” #CBRBingo (BINGO!)

by Leave a Comment

This was actually a really strange reading experience for me, because I usually don’t read (fiction) books where I’ve spent so many hours listening to the author speak on non-fictional topics. It’s allllmost like what I imagine reading a book that a friend wrote would be. I’ve never actually had that experience, though (yet), so what do I know. Anyway, almost ten years of Vlogbrothers videos, and three years of weekly podcast episodes lends a little familiarity, is all I’m saying. And I liked the book! […]

“That’s what the cool people who mock breeders don’t understand: that there can be a love bigger than two people.”

by Leave a Comment

After breezing through the David Wong books, it seemed a natural next step to check out his Cracked colleague, Wayne Gladstone. I can’t say I came away from this book with near the excitement or sense of joy. There’s something lacking, here. Specifically, the first three quarters of the book leave much to be desired. In the world of Notes from the Internet Apocalypse, the internet has mysteriously disappeared, leaving the world in, well, pretty much the same state it’s currently in. Ignore the “apocalypse” […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo