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:

The Secret to Chess is the Secret to Life

All the Wrong Moves: A Memoir About Chess, Love, and Ruining Everything by Sasha Chapin

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Learning to play chess was one of my 2020 new year’s resolutions. It turned out to be a pretty good one since we’re largely home bound. Lately, everyone is talking about Netflix’ The Queen’s Gambit, as well, so chess is enjoying a bit of spotlight it hasn’t been in for some time. However, as Sasha Chapin details in All the Wrong Moves, for a certain type of person chess is always in the spotlight. The game becomes an obsession. It’s a niche world and perfect […]

“God knows we are not perfect and simply invites us to try again.”

The Catholic Hipster Handbook: Rediscovering Cool Saints, Forgotten Prayers, and Other Weird but Sacred Stuff by Tommy Tighe

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Goodreads’ recommendations usually leave me scratching my head. It seems to make irrelevant connections, like Oh, you’ve liked a book with a red cover before – try this! But, I was intrigued by the Goodreads algorithm putting The Catholic Hipster Handbook in front of me. I’m not Catholic, but I did go to Catholic school for a bit. I don’t label myself as a hipster, but that’s only because I’m too busy with my vinyl collection and third-wave coffee and pipes to worry about labels. […]

“The practice of yoga teaches us to live fully.”

Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom by B.K.S. Iyengar

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Iyengar is something of an ambassador of yoga. Even though he has died, he continues to educate and influence those curious about yoga’s practice and precepts. Personally, I first started reading Iyengar because he was on the reading list of Yoga with Adriene’s Adriene Mishler. The Tree of Yoga is the short and nourishing title on Adriene’s list, and that was the first one I read. This book is longer (around 300 pages) and still dense. However, while other books may be better introductions to […]

Dracula sucks…but the book doesn’t!

Dracula by Bram Stoker

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Dracula sucks but the book doesn’t. I go through phases of reading classics or otherwise tackling books with reputations of being difficult. Sometimes it’s easy to see why books are classics – they’re timeless and engrossing. A Tale of Two Cities is that way for me. So is Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. Other times the classics feel like archaeological work. The reader is excavating and extrapolating. Dracula felt like work to me, but the reader can definitely appreciate the book’s influence on future work. In particular, […]

Spoooky

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Counter-intuitively, this Gothic horror novel was an absolute joy to read. My attention span in 2020 is limited at best, but I could not put down Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic. Her main character, the impetuous and steel-spited Mexico City socialite Noemí Taboada, is truly alive. The rural Mexican setting is a delight, and the creepiness level is appropriate for those of us less versed in horror. Noemí Taboada is a Mexico City mover and shaker. She lives in the 1940s-50s era, and has expansive ideas […]

Help if your desk is a mess and you find yourself pacing and laughing.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

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I’ve tried to stay as ultralight as possible when it comes to managing my work life and things like to-do lists. Work isn’t what I’m on earth for and I don’t want to give it more attention than it needs! The basecamp guys’ books on work (Remote and Rework for example) have been helpful to me in figuring out how to prioritize things and not worry if the 78 things to do aren’t done in a single day. I also enjoyed Cal Newport’s Deep Work. […]



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