Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Trans and Transitions

Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham

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Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: liberate. Carlotta is coming home from prison, which is some sort of liberation and she’s trying to find her way as a trans woman in the world, seeking her own path to liberation. I’ve written before about my beef with contemporary writing and how smarmy it’s become. Every villain has to twirl their mustache, every hero has to overcome a specific obstacle to warm the audience’s heart, everything is so boringly Manichaean. There’s little space for complexity, imperfection, growth, […]

June 2024 Leftovers

The First Quarry by Max Allan Collins

Kings of the Garden: The New York Knicks and Their City by Adam J. Criblez

Out On The Cutting Edge by Lawrence Block

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nevada by Imogene Binnie

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford Dictionary by Simon Winchester

Exalted by Anna Dorn

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Happy Pride to all who celebrate! The First Quarry**** I was disappointed in the quality of the last couple of Quarry novels so I wasn’t expecting much…but this was good. One of his best plots and I really enjoyed it. Could’ve done without the racism. Big believer that you can show the casual racism of the past (1970s) without wallowing in it and the book does that. Otherwise, it’s good. Kings of the Garden: The New York Knicks and Their City**** Stretching a four star […]

Sometimes you want to look at a guy and say: Well, he’s f***ed, but he’s trying.

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

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Eddie has to be careful, otherwise he’s going to open his mouth and give this man five paragraphs of lunacy, starting with “You’re pretty” and ending with “Are you always this bad at your job?” with maybe some “Can I touch your suit?” thrown in there to maximize the horror. ― Cat Sebastian, You Should Be So Lucky It’s not just the burden of continually lying, it’s keeping your existence a secret. When the world has decided that people are supposed to be a certain […]

The Book of Eight Summers Ago

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

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During one summer off while in college, I worked as a waiter in a tacky chain Mexican restaurant. And for the first two weeks, I was terrible at it. Just awful. Triage was impossible for me. I wouldn’t have lasted half-a-shift at the restaurant in this book. My manager was very encouraging but one of my co-workers just had it in for me. She berated me, belittled me, basically made my life hell because I was a lousy waiter. I eventually got better and by […]

Player of Pearl

Earl the Pearl: My Story by Earl Monroe

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I’ve always been fascinated by NBA player Earl “The Pearl” Monroe. I don’t know when I first became familiar of him being a great player, first for the Baltimore Bullets, then the New York Knicks. But my first memory is the Denzel Washington monologue in He Got Game where he talks about how Earl was called “Jesus” on the playgrounds of Philadelphia because he was such a great player. I wanted to know more about Monroe’s time in Baltimore. Being a native, I have always considered him […]

May 2024 Leftovers

The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Batmanga: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga, Vol. 1 by Jiro Kuwata

Magic: The Life of Earvin "Magic" Johnson by Roland Lazenby

Somebody Owes Me Money by Donald Westlake

When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block

The Curse: The Colorful & Chaotic History of the LA Clippers by Mick Minas

Jerry West: The Life and Legend of a Basketball Icon by Roland Lazenby

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses

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June already? Sheesh. The Brass Verdict**** Ever since John Grisham lost his fastball in the late-90s, I’ve mostly forsaken legal thrillers. But I like the Bosch series and I wanted to read something LA-based and this delivered. It’s a fun plot with some legit exciting twists. Will probably go back to it at some point or maybe watch the show. Interior Chinatown*** I wish I liked this one more than I did. The satire is razor sharp, the story is deep and the pain is […]



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