Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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About Halbs

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I'm left-handed! (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Halbs's Quick Questions interview.)

Halbs's Reviews:

I would not have been a settler.

Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne

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I read S.C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon as part of a book club. The titular empire in this work of history is Comanche empire. Gwynne says it was the Comanches that determined when the West opened up to white settlers. For decades and decades, no one could get around them. About half-way through our club meeting, someone asked a question that’s good to ask about any book: What is this book about? Empire’s cover features Comanche leader Quanah Parker, and Parker’s name is […]

“The further you get from home, the weirder things get.”

The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey

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Colin Dickey is a writer on the fringe. His books are about those who fear secret societies (Under the Eye of Power), an American history of ghosts (Ghostland), and monsters/aliens (The Unidentified). In The Unidentified, Dickey meets with and explores what it is that draws people to fringe beliefs. One of his theories is that these fringe beliefs, be they in cryptids or aliens, provide us belonging, comfort, and enchantment in a disenchanted world: “Much of what attracts people to these fringe beliefs is a […]

“Bones is what they are now.”

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Family and friends recently took a trip down to the coast. I’ve always heard of beach reads, but I’ve never actually read anything while sitting on the beach. This was my chance! I loaded up my waterproof Kobo with some appropriate reading. Enter, Treasure Island. Somehow, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and I had always passed one another, like…TWO SHIPS IN THE NIGHT. But even though I missed this book in my childhood, it certainly had all of the danger and wonder that make a […]

“The talks had completed a circle to nowhere.”

Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor by Steven Kemper

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Steven Kemper’s Our Man in Tokyo tells the story of Joseph Grew, the United States’ Ambassador to Japan in the decade leading up to World War II. Ultimately, of course, the story has to be a tragedy. Despite Grew’s tireless efforts to build meaningful relationships and develop creative solutions, he could not keep the United States and Japan from war. Nor could the many other well-intentioned people in both nations. Grew’s story is an engaging and encouraging one, despite the ultimate result. The ambassador – […]

All Apologies

More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell

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I went to a private, Christian middle school that utilized a classical education model (rhetoric, Latin, logic, etc.). I checked this apologetics book out from the library in, oh….1998! When I switched schools in high school, I forgot to return it. Twenty-five years later, I finally read it! Josh McDowell’s More Than a Carpenter is a kind of quick overview of standard apologetics arguments that Christians use to try and prove up that Jesus is/was Christ and God. McDowell also wrote Evidence That Demands a […]

“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”

The Terminal List by Jack Carr

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I mentioned to a friend that I was entering the Dad Books/Daddington Island* phase of my reading life (thrillers, history, etc.). A few days later, that friend handed me a stack of Jack Carr books. You may be remember the Amazon Prime series based on the book – a Navy SEAL named Jack Reece comes comes home from a bad mission, bad stuff happens, and he has some vengeance to attend to. That’s the gist of the plot. No surprise – the book is better […]



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