Cannonball Read 10

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Jake

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Jake's Reviews:

Decline in Fall

Big Game: The NFL In Dangerous Times by Mark Leibovich

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I am a lifelong football fan and a Baltimore Ravens supporter. When the Ray Rice scandal hit, I swore off the sport for a year because of how poorly the NFL and the Ravens organizations respectively handled the situation. The Rice situation provided me with an excuse to do something I had wanted to do for awhile: watch less football. It’s tough to overstate what a hold the NFL had on my life in my 20s. I’d plan work, break dates, check my phone in bad circumstances to follow the league, both my beloved Ravens and my fantasy team. But […]

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

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10/18/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:35 |

Greatness

LA Confidential by James Ellroy

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Read for CBR10Bingo: Book was better. The movie is one of my all-time favorites. This is my first time reading the novel. I’ve read five James Ellroy books in the last few months so if you want my thoughts on my personal evolution towards his works, check past reviews. Having read the tail end of his work and the beginning of what made him popular, I can say with confidence this is the best book he’s written. It’s the perfect merger of his style and capability. I knew the book would be substantially different than the movie, as the latter […]

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

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10/16/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:34 |

The Queen is in the Building. Tell me how you feeling?

The Witch Elm by Tana French

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If you’ve followed me on GoodReads, you are well aware of my affinity for Tana French. A former parishioner of mine turned me onto her books three years ago. I liked In The Woods well enough but at the time, I felt there was something lacking. I didn’t know that…a. I was unfamiliar with French’s style (subsequent readings would help me appreciate it more) and b. it was a first novel and I’ve since learned to be more graceful with first novels. I then read The Likeness and it absolutely blew my mind. From then on, I became a full fan. And as a […]

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

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10/12/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:33 |

James Ellroy But Condensed And More Entertaining

The Song Is You by Megan Abbott

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While I enjoy her recent work, which is usually set in the present day, I wish Megan Abbott had written more books with settings in 40s and 50s LA and Vegas. She was really onto something. I suppose comparisons to James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia are inevitable with this one. Like Ellroy’s work, it’s a murder mystery based on a true murder of a woman working the fringes of Hollywood. But unlike Ellroy, who likes to muse about social affairs and masculinity, this is a straight-up whodunnit. And Hallelujah, for the reader is better off for it. Most of the book centers […]

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

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10/9/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:32 |

Offed At The Races

Hex by Maggie Estep

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This was not a conventional mystery read but it was a fun book and unique compared to much of what I consume. I’m always down for books where folks get dragged unwittingly into being private eyes. But this one is different. Rather than focus solely on the perspective of the protagonist, each chapter has a different perspective from a different character. Some are more relevant to the plot than others, which can be frustrating but over time, I got used to it and even came to appreciate it.   The mystery is well done here but I’m not sure anyone […]

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

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10/6/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:31 |

Forget It, Juniper, It’s Racism

Follow Her Home by Steph Cha

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Read for CBR 10 Bingo: Underrepresented. Steph Cha is a Korean-American mystery writer in a field dominated by white people (mostly men). I’m usually graceful when I review first time novelists, so while there was a lot that annoyed me about Steph Cha’s debut, I generally enjoyed it and am going to lean mostly on the positives. I love hard boiled/noir fiction. Apparently, so does Steph Cha and her main character (and author ancillary) Junipero Song. The book is littered with references to Chandler, Macdonald and Hammett, three of the greats (Macdondald is my personal favorite). I’m not sure it […]

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

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10/5/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:30 |

Goodfellas meets The Social Network by way of Ayn Rand

American Kingpin by Nick Bilton

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Privilege is a helluva drug. Apparently, it was the only thing you couldn’t buy on the Silk Road. I listened to most of this book on audio. During one stretch of long driving, my wife was with me and only heard part of it. It was the part in which FBI agents who had just busted a Silk Road associate took his computer and transferred the associate’s bitcoins into private offshore accounts they could access. As my wife started laughing, I told her “Just about everyone in this book is stupid.” Let’s start with the main character. Ross Ulbricht (cis-het […]

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

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10/3/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:29 |

Star Wars for Adults

Saga, Volume 9 by Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan

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Read as part of CBR 10 Bingo: Banned book. The Saga comics have been banned in several states and continue to be one of the most challenged books in public libraries across the nation. I’m not a science fiction guy. I read a little science fiction and a little fantasy but my bailiwick is mystery. I don’t really like graphic novels either. That would make me an unlikely fan of the Saga series. But any time these books come out, they’re absolute must reads for me. The “Star Wars for adults” line is an accurate one. Saga is a space opera with adult themes, graphic language and […]

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

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10/2/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:28 |


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