Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“The chief wrong which false prophets do to their following is not financial… but the real harm is on the mental and spiritual plane.”

Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age by Leah Sottile

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CBR17 Bingo: Borrow – Support your local library! Like many of my reads, I borrowed this book from my local public library. The story of cult leader Amy Carlson and Love Has Won burst onto the news due to the unusual circumstances surrounding her dead, but she and her group are just the latest incarnation of New Age new religious movements in the United States. I have a bit of a fascination with new religious movements (which are not always cults, though all cults are […]

“There are so many ways to tell it, and all of them are important. But each way paints a very different picture and leads down a different road.”

Lay Them to Rest: On the Road with the Cold Case Investigators Who Identify the Nameless by Laurah Norton

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Like many of my millennial siblings I partake in quite a bit of true crime content. Over the years it’s become important to me that the content I consume is doing the work of being ethical in how it portrays the victims and their loved ones. I’m not here for tragedy porn, I’m here because the hows and whys of human interaction fascinate me and sometimes those interactions are negative.    Which is perhaps why Lay Them to Rest found its way onto my to […]

The Politics of Being a Medical Examiner and Coroner

L.A. Coroner by Anne Soon Choi

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Note: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. L.A. Coroner is about as much about the politics of criminal investigation as it is a biography of Dr. Thomas Noguchi, Chief Medical Examiner in LA from 1967 to 1982. That time frame means he was the one in charge of doing the autopsies and some other forensic investigating for the deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, victims of the Manson Family, Janis Joplin, and other celebrities. I have little […]

Diving In Too Deep

Submersed: Wonder, Obsession, and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines by Matthew Gavin Frank

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Before the murder of journalist Kim Wall by inventor Peter Madsen hit international headlines, few had heard of the world of amateur submarines, a small but obsessive group chasing the chance to go ever deeper. Like the author, I am very claustrophobic, and deeply suspicious of deep water, so of course the stories of spelunkers and divers fascinate me. And while I remember following the story of Kim Wall’s murder as it unfolded in the news, I didn’t follow it all the way until the […]

How the World Works

Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy by Matthew Campbell & Kit Chellel

The Constant Gardener by John Le Carré

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Finished two consecutive books on how the world works. Both are good and devastating in their own respective ways Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy When the cargo ship Dalit hit Baltimore’s Key Bridge last year, I felt it deeply, not just because I’m a Baltimorean but because I’ve worked with seafarers in the past. It’s a hard life: dangerous labor with little pay and almost no labor protections. Away from your family months at a […]

In Search of the Green Fairy

The Absinthe Forger: A True Story of Deception, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Dangerous Spirit by Evan Rail

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Among all liquors, absinthe, a high-proof anised-flavored spirit known for its green hue, has a special mystique for its alleged mind-altering properities, its association with the art and literature of the 19th century, and a nearly century-long ban in many countries in Europe and America. However, one unscrupulous enthusiast took advantage of its cult following to swindle collectors out of thousands of dollars. Last spring, in a small bar in Seattle, I was regaled by the story of how absinthe came to be banned. A […]



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