Cannonball Read 16

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Hustled

Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball by Keith O'Brien

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Read as Part of CBR16 Bingo: games. Pete Rose is a former baseball player and this is a book based on his life. As I said last year in my review from Eight Men Out, I’ve always had mixed feelings on Pete Rose. Along with the Black Sox, he’s the one most famously banned from baseball due to a sort of gambling scandal. The rampant denialism got under my skin and I’ve just never liked the guy. I’ve softened a little, not because Rose has […]

Tossed a curveball

Curveball  by Pablo Cartaya

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We know the story of Curveball it is a  “It is more fun to play the game than to be played by the game.” But Pablo Cartaya has a few curveballs tossed in as well. We follow a young girl who loves competition and sports, especially baseball. Or does she? Or is her mother trying to live vicariously through her, pushing her to be the best as she couldn’t be? And to keep the family tradition alive so that she can have the opportunities her mother […]

Dodger This

The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness by Andy McCullough

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The fascinating thing about this book is how I was more interested in Clayton Kershaw’s story than the man himself. I suppose both are intertwined. But I think Kershaw has a fascinating story, rising from the challenges of his youth to becoming the consensus best pitcher of his generation. The man himself? Eh. Stays private, sometimes shows a funny side, family man, Christian of the Baptist/Evangelical/non-liturgical variety. Seems like a decent guy, certainly not an intriguing one. Andy McCullough seems to know this without saying […]

Step up to the Plate

Out of Left Field by Jonah Newman

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I saw the online reader’s copy of Out of Left Field, several months ago and I saved the link for a rainy day. And recently I saw that it was due soon (the end of March 2024 to be precise) and figured I better give it a shot or I would probably lose the chance. What started as a memoir for Jonah Newman, turned into a fiction rendition of his life. Things are clever, humorous, cozy, familiar, fresh, and relatable. Things move quickly enough in […]

No strikes, but a ball

Fox Point's Own Gemma Hopper: (A Graphic Novel) by Brie Spangler

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I enjoyed Fox Point’s Own Gemma Hopper: (A Graphic Novel) more than I thought, yet, not as much as I had hoped. The idea of “only having value is when you play baseball (but not actually, of course),” was the point, but not fleshed out enough to make you believe it. Plus, the father’s “apology” to Gemma at the end is only because now he has “two baseball players in the family” so now he’ll “step up” and “help my daughter. Who, by the way, […]

Peanuts, Cracker Jack, pop flies . . . and physics?

Science, Matter and the Baseball Park by Catherine Ciocchi

Finley: A Moose on the Caboose by Candace Spizzirri

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I am not usually a baseball fan or science fan, but some times things happen within a book to change that. And while Science, Matter and the Baseball Park did not make me want to run and join a baseball team or get season tickets to the local science museum, it did make me go, “well now. Ain’t that a bat to the noggin.” (But in a good way.) Catherine Ciocchi, Burgen Thorne and Chantelle Thorne made a book that brings the theme of Matter […]



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