Small Town by Lawrence Block
I don’t quite know what to make of Lawrence Block’s Small Town. On the one hand, Block is trying to catch the spirit of the City in the months following 9/11. The story follows a cast of characters: a cop, a criminal, and a few in between, whose lives converge due to a series of murders that shake a still shaken city. Lawrence Block is one of New York City’s great poet laureates, and I appreciate what he is trying to do with the story, even […]
Black Edge: Insider Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar
Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia's Attack on the West by Luke Harding
Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8? by Ethan Brown
The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep by Lawrence Block
I was on vacation last week (with all the requisite social distancing procedures) and I did a lot of vacation reading. I’m not sure why but lately I’ve been on a non-fiction kick, thus, three out of the four books I read were non-fic. Fortunately for me, everything I read was at least good and all merited the coveted 4-stars. Black Edge I became interested in this story when I learned that Steve Cohen and Preet Bharara’s relationship was the basis for the hit Showtime […]
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump
Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas
Crime In Progress by Glenn Simpson & Peter Fritsch
Burglars Can't Be Choosers by Lawrence Block
The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian by Lawrence Block
The Burglar Who Like to Quote Kipling by Lawrence Block
Seinfeldia: How A Show About Nothing Changed Everything by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
I'll Have What She's Having: My Adventures in Celebrity Dieting by Rebecca Harrington
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album by Ken Caillat and Steve Stiefel
O.K., I admit it, I have not posted any reviews this Cannonball. It’s just been a weird and for too many, sad time, hasn’t it? But I have managed to do a little reading. These may just be capsule reviews, but that’s just about all I can handle at the moment. There have been some good books and not so good books, but it’s 2020, so that’s par for the course. Looking at this list I realize that I have been drawn to books to […]
Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen
A Time to Scatter Stones by Lawrence Block
I knocked out two quick books in the last day, neither of which won me over. Mariette in Ecstasy Judging by other reviews of this book, it appears as if I’m taking a rare middle ground stance. I thought the prose was beautiful and the scene descriptions lush and full. I enjoyed several individual pages. But with a big cast of characters and a central one the writer makes intentionally mysterious, none of it resonates. Plotting is marginal at best. It just lurches from one […]
The Night and the Music by Lawrence Block
Top of the Heap by Erle Stanley Gardner
I knocked out two books over the weekend, both good enough in their own ways. The Night and the Music 4 stars I’ve never really liked short stories but I like Matthew Scudder and, aside from a novella, this is all that I have left to get from his tale. And I enjoyed each story on its own in some way. The mystery ones were fun but the ones where we see Scudder’s humanity are often better. I do wish the Mick Ballou ones were longer […]
