Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Mothers and Daughters

My Mama, Cass: A Memoir by Owen Elliot-Kugell

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Cbr16bingo Celestial (bingo)    Cass Elliot was a rock star and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Owen Elliot-Kugell is Cass Elliot’s daughter, orphaned at the age of 7 after Cass’s tragic and unexpected death in London in July of 1974. Now in her 50s, Owen has spent many years missing her mother and trying to learn as much about her as possible from those who knew her — family, friends and people who worked with her in the music business of […]

Let’s Go, Bananas

The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen

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Read as part of CBR16  Bingo: bananas. The biography is on the life of Samuel Zemurray, the notorious “banana king” of United Fruit whose pursuit of wealth and product led to political destabilization in central America and the Caribbean.  It’s a shame that Samuel Zemurray has such an interesting story and yet only a so-so biographer. Rich Cohen takes on compelling subjects such as Zemurray and Albert Hicks (The Last Pirate of New York) but he tells their respective tales in such a slipshod and […]

“A peace based on injustice is a treacherous sleep whose waking is death. Your honor lies in waking out of it.”

The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore

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This book was infuriating, but very interesting. If you’re looking to rage-out at the patriarchy, The Woman They Could Not Silence will certainly do the trick. But also, because Elizabeth Packard was a badass who changed things for thousands of people in her lifetime and many more into the future, you get a happyish ending as well to lift you back from your cleansing rage. Elizabeth Packard was committed to an asylum in the 1860s by her husband; because he said she was insane, she was […]

Play Stopper

Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant by Roland Lazenby

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CN: This review touches on the details surrounding Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault case and settlement. While it does not go into graphic detail, those who are sensitive to sexual assault can skip this review.  And so I conclude Roland Lazenby’s trio of books on great Lakers guards. First Magic Johnson, then Jerry West, and finishing up with Kobe Bryant. This is by far Lazenby’s best one and though it struggles with some of the same issues his others do (trading insight for access, taking shortcuts […]

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 […]

February-March 2024 Leftovers

The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones

A Lowcountry Bride by Preslaysa Williams

Bone White by Ronald Malfi

Alexander the Great by Phillip Freeman

Nero: Matricide, Murder and Music in Imperial Rome by Anthony Everitt and Roddy Ashworth

Beyond a Boundary by C.L.R. James

A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block

The Killing Kind by John Connolly

Shōgun by James Clavell

Nobody's Angel by Jack Clark

A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown's Most Shocking Crime by Casey Sherman

Village in the Dark by Iris Yamashita

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland

The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Woolraich

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Rain, rain, go away. I thought my reading count looked too low and then I realized I didn’t do leftovers for February, so here’s Feb-March combined. The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and Rise of the Tudors ***** Jones is such a talented historian. Gets all the important stuff of the Wars of the Roses in great detail and lets the story entertain. His Templars book will soon be on my radar. A Lowcountry Bride**** Had to read this for a library […]



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