Cannonball Read 9

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

We Travel to Find Home

Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It by Geoff Dyer

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My encounter with this book is a happy accident. As I was browsing through Half-Price Books, I scanned through the yoga/stretching section and laughed out loud at the title of this one – Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It. That sounded like my kind of fitness book, so I bought it and brought it home.  Weeks later, I finally got around to opening it up. A few pages in, I realized that both Half-Price Books and I had misjudged the subject matter. Dyer’s book isn’t about yoga – it is a travelogue. Dyer details a period in […]

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7/27/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:25 |

Basic Happiness Advice Worth Hearing Again

What Happy People Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Life for the Better by Dan Baker. Cameron Smith

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As someone who grew up with the nickname Oscar the Grouch (thanks Dad!) it is fair to say that “happy” is not a descriptor that is often used when people describe me. I do get a lot of para-happy comments like “laid back” and “calm” and “easygoing”, but not “happy”. Since being happy seems like a good thing, I have been working for a few years to have a better outlook on life. Cognitive-behavioral therapy has been very helpful in addressing anxiety and depression caused by that anxiety, but I’m hoping to move on towards happy. Someone at some point […]

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7/16/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:24 |

The Darkness that Serves the Light

Batman: Knightfall by Dennis O'Neil

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This review includes minor spoilers of a twenty year old zeitgeisty comic that you probably already know about. On its face, Batman: Knightfall is the novelization of the (in)famous storyline in which the Caped Crusader suffers a broken back at the knee of the villain Bane and must temporarily cede the batsuit to another. Moviegoers will recognize the major plot points from the final movie in the Nolan Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. Comic nerds will be familiar with the storyline for its supremely awesome 1990s Batsuit.  However, the book is more than a simple retelling of the old story. […]

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7/14/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:23 |

Calling All Sellouts

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

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In high school, I did my best to morph from shy wallflower into mysterious guitar-slinging writer. Not as a pose, but because I felt the most ME when I was jamming with friends or banging out a story. I thought I found myself and my group. I wanted, more than anything, to ring true. I wanted to surround myself with people who wanted the same thing. That was my ideal life.  Fast forward fifteen years. I’m an attorney walking downtown, lost in thought about some projects, when a group of middle schoolers on a field trip walk by. A skater […]

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7/11/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:22 |

The Best of the Dini/Timm Batverse

Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories by Paul Dini, Bruce Timm

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Growing up, Batman was my guy thanks to Batman: The Animated Series. I loved the look and the mood of the show. Two guys largely responsible for that landmark show are writer Paul Dini and illustrator Bruce Timm. The third member of that B:TAS trinity is voice director Andrea Romano, who gave us our definitive Batman – Kevin Conroy. The success of the animated show translated well back into comics, many of which have been collected and reviewed by me in The Batman Adventures.  Dini and Timm also teamed up to create the 1994 Eisner-winning story “Mad Love”, which gave […]

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7/3/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:21 |

SNIKT

Wolverine by Chris Claremont, Frank Miller

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This is one of the comics that makes me love comics. Wolverine is a collection of Wolverine’s first solo series. It was written and illustrated by comic titans Chris Claremont (Days of Future Past) and Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil). The writing is terse and largely comprised of Wolverine’s stream of thought. The art is simple yet moody. As Claremont explains in the introduction, the book elevates Wolverine from an animalistic berserker to a complete and compelling character.  While I love Hugh Jackman as much as the next nerd, this Wolverine would be more likely played by someone […]

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Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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6/30/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:20 |

Heinlein’s Starship Troopers Meets Kafka’s The Trial Meets Heller’s Catch-22

Bill, the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison

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“All of the characters in this book are fictitious,” the legalese in the front of Bill reads, “and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and, besides, they aren’t even born yet.” So begins Harry Harrison’s often absurdist and sometimes bludgeoning satire of war, bureaucracy, and humanity in general. Titular Bill is a Forrest Gump-like character in the beginning of the story; he is a gentle bumpkin content to live a quiet life in a rural part of his planet. However, circumstances drag him into military service on behalf of The Emperor, whoever that is. Bill stumbles […]

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Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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6/26/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:19 |

“Going round the world too quickly is like attending a series of dinner parties and leaving with the soup.”

Thrilling Cities by Ian Fleming

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In 1959, The Sunday Times gave James Bond writer Ian Fleming a round-the-world plane ticket and charged him with quickly traveling through 14 of the world’s major cities. (Fleming had been foreign editor for the paper for some time previously.) The result is Fleming’s Thrilling Cities, a memorialized account of the writer’s experiences. While I am a known fan of the James Bond books (you’ll find several of my reviews on this very site), this little non-fiction gem is one of my favorites of all of Fleming’s books. It combines Bond’s love of the sensual pleasures in life with humorous (dry, like a […]

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6/11/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:18 |

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