Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Write What You Know

My Dark Places by James Ellroy

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Read as part of CBR11Bingo: Biography/Memoir As I said a few weeks ago in my review of This Storm, I recently met James Ellroy at a book signing. I confess to feeling some intimidation. I’ve heard many stories over the years of Ellroy’s abrasive and forward personality in public. I shared in a social media group about getting ready to meet Ellroy and one guy shared a story about him fat shaming a kid at a book signing. Granted, it was hearsay but in line with what I expected. Anyway, once Ellroy got there, he spoke in his typical rhyming, alliterative […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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7/6/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:53 |

Living in the Past

This Storm by James Ellroy

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I met James Ellroy when purchasing this book at a book signing. I was nervous, having heard plenty of stories about his uncouth behavior in public. But he was actually quite nice and gracious with his time. It seems to me that once he rides out his initial wave of anxiety and gets comfortable in a situation, he’s fine. Both of us being Lutheran, we joked about the great Martin Luther; he of course appreciating Luther’s vulgarity towards the Pope. Ellroy makes it clear that he lives in the past. He lives a monastic existence of no TV or much […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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6/20/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:46 |

Slumpbuster

Sunset Express by Elvis Cole

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When baseball players are in a slump, there’s an old school remedy for doing something on the side to help break out of it. It’s called finding a “slumpbuster.” I’m not going to talk about what it actually is since it’s rooted in horrific misogyny (and I suggest you don’t google it either) but I’m going to take the germ of an idea (minus the misogyny) and apply it to reading. Finishing books has been a chore lately and I was disheartened at how much I didn’t like Philip Kerr’s Metropolis so it took me a few false starts before I […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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4/18/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:41 |

Amateur Sleuthing on Your Sister-In-Law? That’ll Go Well…

Die A Little by Megan Abbott

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As I said in my review of The Song Is You, I wish Megan Abbott had done more 40s and 50s LA noir tales. She is of course welcome to write what she darn well pleases without my input. Give Me Your Hand was one of my favorite reads from last year. But these tales are so much fun and they hit that sweet spot of quality LA mysteries. Like The Song is You, this is a historical mystery featuring an amateur sleuth trying to deduce what’s behind her sister-in-law’s shady past. It’s well-paced with taut prose that takes its time peeling back the […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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3/16/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:29 |

Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley

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Dreams have always featured heavily in Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series. But this one in particular had a lot of dream sequences and descriptions of dreams. It kind of wore on me after awhile; I felt like Mosley was trying to stuff extra scenes to raise his page count since the plot was so thin. I don’t know what it’s like dealing with publishers but note to writers: if you can get away with a good story in 190 or 220 pages, it’s cool. I don’t need padding just to get to 300. But while I didn’t like repetitious usage […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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2/7/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:17 |

Under the Bridge

The Underbelly by Gary Phillips

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Because the hardboiled genre has become so mainstream, many forget it has its roots in anti-establishmentarianism. Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest is on some level a mea culpa for his time as a strike-busting Pinkerton agent. Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe frequently made an enemy of the local police, whom he never trusted. His last short story functioned as a screed against the American healthcare system. Gary Phillips’ The Underbelly may be seen as a unique take on the genre: a homeless PI maneuvering through the impoverished of LA trying to unravel the conspiracy but given the roots of hardboiled, this is a true-to-form throwback. A real nod to […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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1/11/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:5 |

Love in an elevator

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

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The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory was simply lovely. Alexa and Drew meet when stuck in a hotel elevator together in San Francisco. Alexa is on her way to meet her sister to celebrate a promotion. Drew is begrudgingly going to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding. The two strangers hit it off immediately, so Drew takes a chance and invites Alexa to the wedding. He gets a bit carried away and tells everyone she’s his girlfriend. Luckily, Alexa doesn’t mind and they have an amazing time at the wedding and eventual sleepover. The chemistry is electric between them as they spend the next day together. […]

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12/29/2018 's CBR10 Review No:15 |

Mystery and Racism

Fear of the Dark by Gar Anthony Haywood

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In an alternate universe, names like Gar Anthony Haywood and Walter Mosley are known in the same company as those of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. For they too write talented PI characters set in California locations that deal with social issues. Fear of the Dark is Haywood’s freshman effort and it netted him multiple prestigious writing awards for best first novel, including the Anthony and Shamus awards respectively. He should be better known than he is and yet I hadn’t heard of him until I read his contribution to a round table of black mystery writers that was published in the LA […]

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12/14/2018 's CBR10 Review No:57 |


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