Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Just Because It’s Brief Doesn’t Mean It Isn’t Painful

Ablutions by Patrick DeWitt

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Do you love the show Intervention, but find it too glossy and upbeat? Do you feel the problem with Charles Bukowski is that he was just a bit too cheerful? Then this might just be the book for you. Ablutions is narrated by an unnamed Barman (I’d say he’s our protagonist but I’m not entirely sure that is the case) working in a deeply depressing, lowest-of-lowbrow Hollywood bar. Imagine all the magnificent wealth, glamour, and luxury of Hollywood. Cool, now imagine the polar opposite of that- desperation, bitterness, intense poverty and addiction. You’ve got the idea. The characters in this […]

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1/17/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:1 |

TNG through J.J. Abrams, an oral history.

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek by Eds. Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross

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This was a hefty brick of a book. It follows the creation of Star Trek: The Next Generation through the 2016 release of Star Trek: Beyond, but because there was so much more Star Trek content created in the second twenty-five years of the franchise, this sucker clocks in at a whopping 843 pages. I read the first volume in a day and a half. This one took me six. Of course, this was also partially because this book not only had more content, but the content it did have was so frickin’ dramatic. So much behind the scenes drama, […]

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9/29/2018 's CBR10 Review No:117 |

I’m a fastidious bookman and have never liked reading books with library markings or other messy defects.

The Literary Life; Hollywood; Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen; Oh What a Slaughter!; Film Flam by Larry McMurtry

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As you can see, I’m on a bit of a Larry McMurtry kick: The Literary Life – 4/5 Stars Like his previous memoir that I also recently reviewed, The Literary Life, is hyper-focused on his writing career. For the most part, he doesn’t repeat any important stories, though he does trace over a few events and ideas that have come up before. I think to enjoy this one — which reviews of the other books suggest — you have to be interested in the publishing industry, be relatively aware of the figures around at the times he’s describing, and to […]

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6/12/2018 's CBR10 Review No:202 |

“Don’t ignore half of me so you can fit me into a box.”

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Really, really glad I suggested this one for my IRL book club. I’d heard great things, and wasn’t disappointed. It’s historical fiction, and it plays with some weighty themes, but it never stops being a fun read. It’s this great mix of serious historical fiction (with a focus that feels totally fresh) and trashy beach read. I say “trashy” not because the book itself is trashy, but its subject matter–Old Hollywood–can’t help but evoke that gossipy, tell-all feeling. Especially since the premise of the book is literally a tell-all. And Evelyn doesn’t hold back. The book is told in frame. […]

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5/30/2018 's CBR10 Review No:64 |

Elvis, sex, Bruce Willis and marriage

Cybill Disobedience by Cybill Sheppard

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I chose this book because it was on the Karina Longworth’s, (You Must Remember This podcast) list of great Hollywood memoirs and the kindle edition was only $.99. I vaguely remembered the actress from her tv shows, Moonlighting and Cybill but it was actually the negative reviews on Amazon that convinced me to read the book. Cybill Sheppard was a southern beauty queen turned model turned actress. She was also proudly promiscuous and a believer in nontraditional relationships. The book is a loosely chronological set of vignettes about her life, including a closet full of skeletons and some gleeful calling […]

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2/11/2018 's CBR10 Review No:3 |

Poor Marilyn

Unfinished: A Graphic Novel of Marilyn Monroe by Elizabeth Periale

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I won the book, Unfinished…, from fellow Cannonballer Elizabeth Periale (also known as xoxoxoe) and I was excited to read it because Marilyn’s fame has always been interesting to me.  I’ve never obsessed over her like some, but it’s interesting to me how many people do, still, to this day, obsess over Marilyn Monroe.  Or, at least the image of Marilyn Monroe. Periale uses many of those images, along with quotes, by and about Marilyn, in this graphic novel. And she does so to great effect.  She tells bits of Marilyn’s story starting with her childhood, which I was, for […]

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7/26/2017 's CBR9 Review No:27 |

My Sister Hated It

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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My sister hated The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.  I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either.  I think I wanted more, or, maybe, I just wanted it to be better. It glosses over a lot of Evelyn’s relationships and especially with the relationship that Evelyn claimed was the most important. I also had the same problem with it that I had with All the Stars in the Heavens in that, reading this book from the mindset of someone not living in those times, I couldn’t really relate.  Like that book, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo takes […]

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7/24/2017 's CBR9 Review No:26 |

Bad Impulses

All the Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani

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Although I have a “To Read” list on Goodreads and have books and authors scribbled down on the backs of various envelopes and whatnot, I am also a pretty impulsive reader. Especially at my favorite local used book store.  It’s a wonderful place where they give you credit for any books you bring in and also offer a 50% discount when you use that trade credit.  When I’m there, I completely ignore my scribbles and my “To Read” list and just buy books on impulse. All the Stars in the Heavens, by Adriana Trigiani, was just such an impulse buy, […]

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7/17/2017 's CBR9 Review No:25 |


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