Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Portrait of the Gangster as a Man

The Mad Ones: Crazy Joey Gallo and the Revolution at the Edge of the Underworld by Tom Folsm

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As I get older, I try to take myself, and my reading tastes, less seriously. There was a time where I fancied myself a Very Important Book Reviewer that would choke the life out of anything I read in order to critique it with skill. It’s silly, at least from my perspective. I love reading and I love writing reviews but they’re just that: reviews. Chronicling the things I read, if I liked them or not, and if I would recommend them. No more, no less. The Mad Ones is a book I would have ripped in to at a different […]

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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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11/7/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:118 |

Tripping the Light Fantastique

The Long Fall by Walter Mosley

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I’ve been going through Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series the last few years and mostly enjoying it. He’s a good writer with a solid sense of time (post-WWII Los Angeles), a compelling character, and a point-of-view that many readers don’t get from “mainstream” (re: dominantly white) mystery writers. I hadn’t thought much of reading his Leonid McGill series, which is basically Easy Rawlins set in New York in contemporary times. But as I’ve been on a big New York City reading kick lately, I figured I’d give it a try. And I’m glad I did, for I discovered yet another […]

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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11/3/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:116 |

All That Razz

Night of the Toads by Michael Collins/Dennis Lynds

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Trying to pour through as much of the Dan Fortune series as I can before my Kindle Unlimited subscription finally expires (for real this time). I really enjoy these books. I’m a Ross Macdonald devotee and “Michael Collins” (Dennis Lynds) is one of the closest writers I’ve read who’s capable of aping Macdonald’s style. He is empathetic yet engaging. He also uses just enough of New York City without getting lost in it. This one is another good entry in the series, though the seams showed a little. Lynds apparently has some axes to grind and he does so through […]

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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10/28/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:114 |

Ya Drink Too Much

When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block

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My tour through Matthew Scudder’s New York continues. This is another solid entry in the series. I was a little concerned when I saw Matthew drinking at Armstrong’s and other places on the west side. It seemed to negate the ending of Eight Million Ways to Die. Was Block going to retcon everything or just pretend it didn’t happen? However, the reader soon realizes the whole time this is a flashback novel of something Matthew did in 1975, while he was still binge drinking. And while there’s enough for a book, it doesn’t feel shoehorned in. It feels like a quality, authentic […]

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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10/26/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:113 |

Offed at the Races

Gargantuan by Maggie Estep

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Maggie Estep lived a fascinating life. Novelist, poet, MTV correspondent. I think it would have been quite something to have known her when she was alive. Sadly, she passed (seemingly unexpectedly) in 2014. Hex, her first book in the Ruby Murphy took me two tries to get into, not because it’s bad or complicated but because her style is so unique. Each chapter happens from the POV of a different character, and each character is infused with a lived-in personality. But the plotting happens at a glacial pace. Estep’s thing is to allow you to spend plenty of time with […]

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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10/21/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:111 |

City is a Pity; Half of Y’all Won’t Make It

Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block

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My tour of the Matthew Scudder series continues. Many think this is where Lawrence Block made the proverbial leap with these books in terms of quality. That’s probably true; this is far and away the best written book of the series so far. It’s concise and tight. I was engaged the whole time. However, I still think this one falls short of greatness, mostly because of the ending but we’ll get there. Anyway, alcoholic ex-cop and amateur PI Matthew Scudder maneuvers through the bleak landscape of early-80s New York City, trying to find out who killed a prostitute in brutal […]

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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10/17/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:108 |

Shoulda Beena Contenda

Button Man by Andrew Gross

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Button Man is my first Andrew Gross novel and it may be my last. Not because it’s bad; at three stars, it’s definitely not. But because it’s bland, predictable, uninspiring. And with a set up that’s right in my wheelhouse: gangsters, Prohibition, New York, etc., I should’ve liked it a lot more than I did. Positives: Gross does get the era of 30s New York right. Supposedly, this story was inspired by tales of his family, some of whom were Jewish immigrants from Russia. I don’t know the nuances of being a Russian Jewish emigre but I’m familiar with the story […]

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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10/14/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:106 |

Knives Out

A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block

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Made a recent commitment to make my way through Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series. I found the first three enjoyable enough for passing the time but mostly unmemorable. This was the first one that really moved me. And that’s surprising because the crime itself is based on a mystery trope I hate: slashed women/murdered women/serial killer. When I saw the plot for A Stab in the Dark, I audibly groaned. I can’t stand books like that and I rarely read them. Had I not already been familiar with Block’s work, I might’ve just dead ended the series here. Fortunately, Block does […]

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.

Share the post "Knives Out"

10/8/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:105 |


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