Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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

Halbs's Reviews:

“By the smallest of actions one can restore some order in the world.”

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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This was an audiobook listen for me, narrated by the wonderful Nicholas Guy Smith. It was also something of a journey. It took me most of 2020 and a month of 2021 to finish this fine novel. It took me so long not because it was a chore to listen, but precisely because it was  a great story. It takes time to make sense of those. It was a great read for last year because of both plot and theme. The plot’s connection to 2020 […]

A long time ago we used to be friends…

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

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I’m not sneaking up on anybody by reading and reviewing Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. It was definitely one of the most talked-about books of 2020, it’s going to be a series, and it even made Goodreads’ Best of YA fiction finalist list. Even with all of the accolades it was one I missed – you just can’t get to everything, after all. Luckily for me, my wife short-listed this as one of my must-reads for 2021. (I’ve got five or six […]

“Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say, or do.”

Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World by Henri J.M. Nouwen

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Nouwen is one of my favourite Christian writers – simultaneously mystical, transcendent, encouraging, and practical. This isn’t at the top of my list of his books. However, it may be just the right book for someone struggling with finding worth, identity, or hope in dark times. The genesis of this one is interesting – Nouwen was an already well-known writer and figure and was chosen to be profiled by a local paper. The local reporter obviously had very little interest in either Nouwen or the […]

Religious Zealots and a Proxy War in Space

The Honor or the Queen by Davie Weber

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The Honor of the Queen is David Weber’s second installment in the Honor Harrington series. This military sci-fi series takes the Horatio Hornblower-type naval battle stories and places them hundreds of years in the future, as well as in spaaaaace. I reviewed the first book in the series several T-years ago, if you’re interested. In this book, Honor is leading a ship on a diplomatic mission/proxy war front to an area populated by separatist groups called the Masadans and Graysons. These two splinter groups are […]

Meaning in the Muddle

Run with the Horses: The Quest for Life at its Best by Eugene H. Peterson

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“Faith invades the muddle; it does not eliminate it…clarities come from adventuring deep into the mysteries of God’s will and love, not by cautiously managing and moralizing.” This is a lembas-bread-book for a couple of reasons. It’s dense and nourishing, which means it’s good. However, it’s dense and nourishing, which means it’s best absorbed in small bites. That’s mostly why it took me so long to finish this relatively short book. The other reason is the subject – this book is Eugene Peterson’s reflection on […]

Vroom vroom!

Engines of Change: A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars by Paul Ingrassia

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I’m sure the subtitle has you curious, so here are some clues about the fifteen vehicles explored in this great book. Yes, there are only thirteen items listed below, but that’s because a few chapters overlap and include more than one exact make or model of vehicle. The Big Bang Bolsheviks, Nazis, and High-Performance Racers Fins Hitler to Hippies Explosions Iacocca DeLorean, but not that DeLorean Globalisation and Quality Iacocca II Yuppies Iacocca III Red(neck) Dawn Full Gosling Now to the review. The only downside […]



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