Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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An entertaining and eye opening tour through Dave Grohl’s extraordinary life (so far)

The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

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The new pseudo-autobiography, The Storyteller, from Foo Fighters frontman/Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl is not conventional. This makes sense since neither is its author. Rather than telling his life story in chronological order, the book is structured as a series of anecdotes that hit significant events mostly in the order they occurred. Whenever I am reading a biography I always dread the beginning chapters as the author goes into detail about their parents, family, and childhood. I tend to skim these parts because, for the most […]

“Burn it down, Charlie. Burn it all down.”

Firestarter by Stephen King

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Between 1974 and 1984 Stephen King published an astounding 18 books (counting the four novellas published under the name Richard Bachman, later packaged together as The Bachman Books). The sheer output is not the only extraordinary thing. Among those titles are the books most would consider among King’s most iconic: Carrie, ‘salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Stand, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Talisman, Pet Sematary, The Gunslinger, Christine. Next to those iconic works, there are others that are no less great but seem to […]

Take a diabolical voyage on the high seas!

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

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The year is 1634, and the United East India Company is the wealthiest, and most powerful, trade company in the world. The most profitable spice route is between Batavia (modern-day Jakarta) and the Company headquarters in Amsterdam where the ruling board of the Company, the Gentlemen 17, place profit over all other considerations. This route takes eight months to cross and is perilous and arduous. In Batavia, the massive cargo-passenger ship Saardam is about to set sail for Amsterdam with a mysterious cargo, along with […]

A pleasant but rambling (and jarring) journey

Where the Dear and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman

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Nick Offerman’s fifth book, Where the Dear and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American who Loves to Walk Outside is as unnecessarily wordy and rambling as its title. Arranged as a collection of three separate journeys, Where the Dear recounts actor/writer/humorist Nick Offerman’s hiking trip in Montana with Wilco musician Jeff Tweedy and writer George Saunders, his repeated visits to the farm home of James Rebanks, author of The Shepherd’s Life, outside of Liverpool, and finally a cross country ramble to […]

Hail Mary, full of Grace

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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According to Wikipedia, “A Hail Mary pass is a very long forward pass in American football, typically made in desperation, with an exceptionally small chance of achieving a completion. Due to the difficulty of a completion with this pass, it makes reference to the Catholic “Hail Mary” prayer for divine help.” When Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary begins, Ryland Grace is the sole living astronaut onboard a spaceship named Hail Mary heading to a distant star as a one-shot suicide mission to save the Earth. […]

Save your time, avoid this book.

Saving Grace by Debbie Babitt

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I’m not going to bury the lede, I deeply dislike this book. There is not one likable character, nor one that exhibits more than one dimension of personality. The story alternates between frustrating and non-sensical and the finale twists are eye-rolling. This is a bad, Z-grade attempt to emulate Gillian Flynn, Tana French, and Paula Hawkins without understanding what makes those three so good. Mary Grace Dobbs is the newly sworn-in sheriff of her hometown of Redemption, Arkansas in 2019. She got the job after […]



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