Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Two Writers

We Are Watching by Alison Gaylin

Saint of the Narrows Street by William Boyle

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I finished two books this past week and enjoyed them to varying degrees. One was by a favorite author, another by an author I’ve struggled with in the past. Let’s get to the latter first since I like going in reading order… We Are Watching**** I’ve always felt cold toward Alison Gaylin’s work. She’s a very good writer and yet, there’s an emotional distance in her books that I can’t land with. It’s the same issue I get when watching most Christopher Nolan movies: yeah […]

A gripping Southern noir

All Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

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When not reading romance, I love me some mysteries! I usually stray into cozies with pun titles, but been known to enjoy a good detective novel too. All Sinners Bleed was my first read from S.A. Cosby. The novel follows Titus Crowne, a newly elected Black sheriff when tragedy befalls the hometown where he serves. A school shooting uncovers buried secrets and forces the town to reckon with the concept of murderers in their midst. Titus was in the FBI and came home to live […]

The Agnostic’s Bible

The Ultimate Evil: The Search For the Sons of Sam by Maury Terry

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I’m a religious person but I don’t begrudge someone their beliefs. Each person has their own journey. Might make me the world’s worst evangelist but whatever, I’ll take it. If God is real, God knows more than I do so I’ll let Them figure it out. I say this because when it comes to conspiracy theories, I tend to parrot a line I’ve heard many an agnostic use over the decades: maybe God is real, maybe not, either way, if God is real, God’s probably […]

In the City of LA

The Empty Glass by JI Baker

A Student of History by Nina Revoyr

Friend of the Devil (Reckless #2) by Ed Brubaker

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By both design and coincidence, I read three consecutive books on Los Angeles over the last 48 hours. The first two were good 4-star reads and the third was an excellent 5-star one… The Empty Glass Oliver Stone’s Blonde. This got poor reviews and I guess I get it? I suppose it depends on what your expectations are. Me personally, I enjoyed this wild romp through Los Angeles as a low level county morgue guy tries to unravel a government conspiracy around Marilyn Monroe’s death. […]

Tears and Anger

A Murder on W Street: The Death of Seth Rich and the Age of Conspiracy by Andy Kroll

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Read as part of CBR14Bingo: new. This book just came out a week ago and it was the newest book in my personal library once it arrived at my house.  One of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life was to get off Facebook. There were numerous reasons I did it, most of which had to do with personal mistakes I made and not wanting to subject myself to it anymore or be forced to have an opinion when I didn’t. But another reason is […]

Corona Days

Honor Thy Father by Gay Talese

Hit and Run by Lawrence Block

The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost

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After two-plus years of successfully evading the coronavirus, it finally caught up to me last week. Fortunately, my symptoms were mild (vaccinated and boosted), the only one lingering was fatigue. That and family responsibilities left me little time to write reviews this past week. So I decided to put these three here instead of my monthly dump because they were all worthy of longer reviews, two good, one damn fine. Honor Thy Father **** One of the things that made The Sopranos such an excellent television […]



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